Braided Cheesey Bread

Combining my love for cheese and bread together…

The layers of cheese and bread make it hard just have one bite of this!

The dough is rolled with cheese, so you end up with nice layers of cheese and bread together. The skillet cooks the bread so it has a nice crisp around the bottom edges.

For a party, this cheesy bread is a perfect center piece with charcuterie around it. Your guests can enjoy the cheesy bread and charcuterie together!

Ingredients (makes two mini skillets at 6 inches in diameter or one large skillet):

For Dough:

1 packet dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3/4 cup whole milk (95-100F degrees)
1 large egg yolk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Avocado or olive oil for greasing
1 egg, beaten for egg wash

For Filling (for mini skillet, use half of the below for each cheesy bread):

1 1/4 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup chives
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

For Dough:

In a small bowl, combine the dry yeast, 3 tablespoons warm water around 105F degrees and a dash of sugar. Within 5 minutes or so, the yeast should start to foam and rise (if not, you’ll have to start over).
In a medium bowl, mix together the milk, egg yolk, melted butter and yeast mixture.
In bowl to standing mixer whisk together flour and salt.
Using dough hook attachment to standing mixer, on low speed, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and allow the dough hook to knead the dough. Turn the speed up to medium-high and continue to knead the dough for about 3-5 minutes.
In a large bowl, use avocado or olive oil (I prefer avocado oil) to coat the inside of the bowl and place the dough ball into the bowl. Wrap with saran wrap and cover with towel. Allow the dough to sit in a dark, warm area for an hour (I usually let my dough rest in the oven or cupboard).
Before you take the dough out, create the butter, garlic and chive mixture (save about 1 tablespoon to sprinkle on top of the bread) by combining the butter, garlic and chives together. Love me some butter!
Once the dough it ready to be rolled out, first, lightly flour the work surface area and preheat the oven to 375F degrees.
Take out the dough and for the small skillet, divide it into two halves. Leave one-half in the bowl and start rolling out the other half into a rectangular shape to approximately 16 inches by 8 inches or out bigger to make the dough thinner (thinner dough mean more layers of cheese plus bread!!). For a large skillet, do not divide the dough into two halves. The below directions refer to creating two small skillets of cheesy bread.