Savory White Cheddar Cheese Bread

This recipe is adapted from a King Arthur Flour recipe.  The King Arthur Flour website has a wealth of bread and other baking recipes.  One thing i like about this site is that they offer recipes for bread machines, but they tell you what you need to do make the bread without the machine. I am sure that bread machines are lovely, but if I put one more small appliance in my kitchen it will explode.  Let's just say, I plenty of cooking room, but storage is a hot commodity around these parts.

The bread pictured above was one of two cheese based breads I baked based on recipes found on the Kind Arthur Flour site.  I made alterations based on the type of yeast I prefer and based on items I had on hand here at home.  For this recipe I substituted regular cheddar cheese for Vermont White Cheddar Cheese and I used grated Parmesan cheese in place of the Vermont Cheddar Powder the recipe called for.  The Vermont Cheddar Cheese powder is a King Arthur Flour item, but I neither had the time or the excess cash to purchase it. 

As always I used Active Dry Yeast for this recipe.  I purchase this yeast at Costco and keep it in the fridge, because when I purchase the packets of instant yeast I lose them.  I swear there are at least two packages floating around my kitchen as we speak.  I think they hide with the toothpicks, because I can never find the toothpicks when I need them either.  You can use Active Dry Yeast in the place of rapid rise yeast or instant yeast in any recipe, you just have to proof it first.  I do this by allowing it to soak in warm water for 5 minutes for adding it to the recipe.  Some say to that you need to add some sugar or something else sweet to activate this type to yeast, but I have never done so and I have never had any issues with anything not rising. 

1cup lukewarm milk
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 cups all purpose flour (King Arthur is you desire)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup shredded Vermont white cheddar cheese, firmly packed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce, optional (but totally do it)

1. Whisk together the yeast with the lukewarm milk and let it set for 5 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 200°, but turn the oven off when it comes to temp. 
2. Place the milk/yeast mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, salt, sugar, white cheddar cheese, the Parmesan cheese, and the Tabasco sauce.  Mix these with the paddle until well combined, about 5 minutes(thanks to Dina Holton for this tip:).  Switch to the dough hook and knead the dough for about 5 minutes or until it forms a ball and it elastic in nature. 
3. Place the ball of dough into a large greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise (like you oven which if you did step one should be around 200° right now) for 60 to 90 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size. 
4. Gently punch down the dough.  Shape into a loaf shape, place it into a bread pan lined with parchment paper and allow it to rise a second time for 60-90 minutes. 
5. If you are using the oven to rise your dough make sure you remove it before you preheat the oven for the actual baking of the bread. 
6. Preheat the EMPTY oven to 350°.  Bake the bread for 30 to 35 minutes or until it is golden brown on top.  Allow the bread to cool on the counter for 10 minutes.