Easy No-Knead Cheesy Peasant Bread

• servings: 10 servings
• active time: 20 minutes
• total time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

3 1/4 cups (492 g) all-purpose or bread flour

2 1/2 tsp instant yeast (or rapid-rise/bread machine yeast)

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons table salt

1 1/2 cups (365 g) warm water (110 to 115 degrees F)

1 1/2 cups sourdough discard (mine 348 g)

1 1/2 (170g) cups freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese (large holes of box grater)

1/2 (45 g) cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (small holes of box grater)

Directions

Add warm water and sourdough discard together with whisk. Add the sugar, yeast, salt and whisk. Add flour gradually using whisk and then spatula until the ingredients form a shaggy, sticky ball and no dry streaks remain. (May need to adjust flour amount if gets to dry or wet which why I add it gradually)

Add the cheddar and Parmesan cheeses and mix into the dough with your hands or spatula (lifting and turning) until the cheese is evenly combined throughout the dough. Pat the dough into a ball shape. Cover and let sit 15 minutes. Then use wet spatula to lift and stretch as much as possible around dough.

Cover the bowl and let the dough rise until very puffy and nearly doubled, about 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours.

Place an oven rack in the center position (3rd rung from bottom) with pizza steel. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Generously grease a 9 x 5” loaf pan with cooking spray.

Scrape the dough away from the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, deflating dough, forming a rough ball in the center of the bowl. Lightly grease your hands with cooking spray or oil and shape the dough into a circle loaf shape (or a rectangle loaf shape if using a loaf pan), tucking edges under. Place in the prepared pan. The loaf will not be completely smooth and may look a bit rough in shape, that's ok! (If too wet to form just plop into pan-better too wet than too dry)

Let the dough rest, uncovered, for 15-30 minutes until puffy.

Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 degrees F and continue to bake for 25-30+ minutes until golden (200-205 degrees) Tent the top of the loaf with foil if the crust is browning too quickly while baking.

Let cool completely before slicing.

Notes

I have already adjusted this recipe for sourdough above! My start is 1:2:2 so I made adjustments reflected in recipe above. If the dough is too wet, it can’t hold the shape as it rises in the pan but if too dry, it is dense.

Flour: if the dough is absolutely too sticky to work with (remember, it IS supposed to be softer than “regular” bread dough), you can add another 1/4 cup flour (but resist the urge to add too much extra flour).

Cheese: I prefer using freshly grated cheese for this recipe – the flavor is more pronounced and the cheese melds into the bread dough better than pre-shredded cheese. When measuring the shredded cheese, lightly pack it into the measuring cup (but also keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be exact – more cheese won’t hurt!).

Yeast: to use active dry yeast in place of instant yeast, dissolve 1 tablespoon active dry yeast in 1/4 cup warm water until foamy and bubbling, and decrease the water in the recipe by 1/4 cup – use the yeast mixture in the recipe when adding the rest of the water.

Buttered Top: for a softer, shinier crust, butter the top of the bread when it comes out of the oven.

Sourdough Version: decrease the water and flour each by 3/4 cup and add 1 1/2 cups fed or discard sourdough starter (I use a sourdough starter fed at a 1:1:1 ratio – it is thick but still pourable). Add the sourdough discard with the warm water. Decrease the yeast to 1 teaspoon for fed starter and 2 teaspoons for discard. (I adjusted these amounts for my starter)

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 slice
• Calories: 265 kcal
• Total Fat: 7 g
• Saturated Fat: 4 g
• Cholesterol: 18 mg
• Sodium: 532 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 40 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1 g
• Total Sugars: 1 g
• Protein: 10 g