Garlic Cheesy Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup Warm Water
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 envelope Active Dry Yeast (2 1/4 Teaspoons)
1 teaspoon Salt
3 cups Bread Flour
Olive Oil, For Greasing Surfaces


Directions:

- In a large bowl, stir water, honey and yeast together. Let yeast proof 5 minutes.

- Once you know yeast is active, stir in salt and the flour in 1/4 cup increments.

- If you are using a stand mixer, be sure to not increase your speed higher than a 2 or ‘stir’.

- Once dough starts pulling away from the sides and the bowl seems to be pretty clean, set a timer for 5 minutes and walk away. Let the machine knead the dough. After 5 minutes, dough should be smooth and tacky but when touched shouldn’t leave any dough on your fingers.

- Grease the bowl and the dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.

- Punch down dough and cut into two equal portions. Form into two long baguettes the length of the cookie sheet. I like to twist mine because it looks cool, but it also keeps its length and doesn’t shrink.

- Cover with plastic wrap and rise 30 minutes. Start to preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place dough close to the oven where it’s nice and warm.

- Once oven is preheated, remove plastic wrap, from the dough reduce oven to 350F, put the bread into the oven and bake 20 minutes.

- In the meantime, slice the cheese into thin slices and melt the butter.

- Pull loaves of bread out of the oven after 20 minutes and brush with the melted garlic butter.

- Bake another 5-7 minutes or until bread begins to turn a golden brown. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes.

- Cut 1-inch slices 3/4′s of the the way through the loaves. Brush garlic butter in between each slice and fill with a slice of cheese. Bake another 3-5 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.

- Serve immediately. We served ours with a plate of oil olive, red vinegar, salt, and pepper to dip the bread in. Or serve with marinara, cheese sauce, or cream cheese. Tastes a lot like a pretzel when you add kosher salt and dip in sauces. ⅓ pounds Sharp White Cheddar, Or Any Other Cheese You Prefer - We used Jalapeno Cheddar
½ cups Garlic Butter - we used Albertson's brand or Pizza Hut garlic butter