Jalapeno Cheese Bread

So, sometimes I feel like having a blog is like throwing a party and having no-one show up. Moral of the story? Throw cooler parties! Or at least give people reasons to show up. When our baby gets borned, then that will be a good draw. Until then, I'm sharing recipes with you! I've discovered I really like to bake things. So, recipe number one:

Jalapeno Cheese Bread


This bread is great to have with chili or stew, toasted on its own, or use it to make sandwiches. I took this photo, too, by the way. Depending on how you can handle the heat, feel free to add more or less peppers. This recipe makes two loaves.

3 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup shortening
3 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
2 1/4 cups very warm water
3 to 4 cups white flour
2 jalapeno peppers
2 anaheim peppers
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
a little butter
some parsley

Beat together the whole wheat flour, honey, shortening, salt, and yeast in a big bowl until it's all mixed together. Add the warm water, and stir it up for another minute, scraping the sides of the bowl if you need to. Stir in the white flour, one cup at a time. I usually only need 3 cups, but anywhere between 3 and 4 will be fine.

Put the dough on a floured surface and knead if for 5-10 minutes, until it is smooth and springy. Grease another large bowl with shortening, put the lump of dough in it and turn it about so the dough is coated with the shortening. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place for 40 to 60 minutes, until it doubles in size.

Take two 8x4 inch loaf pans and spray them with cooking spray or coat with shortening. Cut the anaheim and jalapeno peppers width-wise, so you end up with little circles of peppers. Remove the seeds if you like it cool, leave them in if you like it hot.

When the dough has risen, punch it once to deflate it, and divide it into two halves. Roll out each half on a floured surface, until it is, like, 1/4 an inch thick or so, and about 9 inches wide. Cover the flattened dough with half of the peppers and 3/4 cups of the cheese, spreading it out so it's mostly even all over. Roll up the dough, very tightly, so that you end up with a log about 9 or 10 inches long. Pinch down the ends and tuck them under the loaf to seal. Put it in the loaf pan. Cover both pans loosely with plastic wrap, and let them sit in a warm place to rise again, for, like, 40-50 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Farenheit, for you foreigners.

When the loaves are done rising, take off the plastic wrap and coat the tops with butter. Divide the remaining grated cheese between the two loaves, pressing the cheese into the dough so it doen't fall out. Sprinkle with parsley, mostly for decoration. Bake the loaves on the bottom-most rack of the oven, for 45 minutes. When they are done, remove them from the pans as soon as you can, and let them cool on cooling racks for awhile.

Mmmmmmm, de-licious!