Ham and Cheese Stuffed Bread for #BreadBakers

Welcome to #BreadBakers! We are a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

This month, our theme is Stuffed Baked Breads and our host is Renu of Cook with Renu. I love stuffed breads - there are so many varieties and flavor profiles; if you dream if you can mash it up into a bread loaf of some sort!

I thought a sort of all-in-one ham and cheese sandwich bread sounded like a fun idea! I used 1/3 of my Farmhouse White Sandwich bread as the base for this, added in some tasty meat and cheese, and voila! This is a wonderful breakfast bread - I liked a slice toasted and eaten as is; it didn't really need anything! An open faced fried egg sandwich also was delicious with this as the base! 

As with most recipes, this can be a great base / guideline to mix and match fillings with! Almost any combination of meats / cheeses that you enjoy together would be very tasty. You could play around with different herbs as well to change up or enhance the flavors. 

See all of our stuffed bread recipes here: 

• Coconut Buns by Magical Ingredients
• Callaloo Loaf by Passion Kneaded
• Double Cheese Fatayers by Ambrosia
• Meatball Stromboli by Palatable Pastime
• Pepperoni Rolls by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Ricotta Calzones with Spinach and Sausage by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Rolled Pepperoni Pizza Loaf by Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Custard buns by Zestysouthindiankitchen
• Stuffed Potato Kulcha by Sneha's Recipe
• Sweet Potato and Apple Braid by What Smells So Good?
• Taco Tuesday Calzone by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Whole Wheat Vegetarian Calzones by Cook with Renu

Ham and Cheese Stuffed Bread

Bread Ingredients
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
½ Tablespoon instant yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons melted butter
1 1/3 cups warm milk (about 85° F)
2 cups bread flour, approximately
½ Tablespoon salt

Filling Ingredients 
7-oz ham slices
7-oz cheese (slices or grated)

Directions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine yeast, sugar, and 1/2 cup of the warm milk in a bowl. Mix and set aside until yeast is bubbly and frothy (8-10 minutes).
2. Add in the all purpose flour, melted butter, remaining milk and about 1 cup of the bread flour and with the dough hook begin mixing until dough has started to form, add in enough additional flour to form a dough ball and allow to knead on medium speed for about 5 minutes.
3. Cover bowl with a tea towel and allow to double in size.
4. Once risen, punch down and on a lightly floured surface roll the dough out into a rectangle. Distribute cheese and meat over the dough, leaving a clean edge (like you would with cinnamon rolls). Roll like a jelly roll and gently press along the seem to seal the dough.
5. Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and arrange the log of dough by laying it in the pan and gently turning the roll back and forth to create essentially a letter e, or similar shape (see the post I used for inspiration here for an image). 
6. Cover the pan with tea towels and set aside again about 40-60 minutes until risen. Dough should spring back when poked gently, when it's ready to bake.
7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake loafs 35-40 minutes, until golden brown, and internal temperature of loaf reaches 200 degrees.
8. Cool about 15 minutes before removing from pans and complete cooling on a wire rack before slicing and serving.

Recipe inspired by Veena Azmanov