Spicy Cheese Bread

Oh no. I'm in trouble! I've been researching how to make a loaf of Spicy Cheese Bread at home that tastes like Stella's from Madison, WI. I've created this recipe so that you may be able to have this bread at home. Stella's Spicy Cheese Bread is a legendary staple to Wisconsin. You are truly blessed if you've gotten your hands on one of their loaves of Spicy Cheese Bread.

Stella's Bakery is famous for making their Spicy Cheese Bread and selling it at the downtown Madison, WI market on the Capitol Square every Saturday. This is a sweet and spicy brioche like bread with lots of provolone and monterey jack cheese stuffed inside. You'll find that most loaves have the highly prized wad of cheese that oozed out during the baking process and forms a nice crust. Everyone fights over this caramelized piece of cheese.  I read that Stella's sells close to 2,500 of these loaves at the Downtown Madison, WI summer Farmer's Market on the square! Whenever my husband and I go to the farmer's market, we get a warm loaf of Stella's Spicy Cheese Bread for breakfast and eat it while we shop for fresh seasonal produce and other wonderful foods you can find there. One of the things we love about this bread is that it tastes wonderful warm or at room temperature. 

Since I'm finding it harder to frequent downtown Madison, I figured I'd put my baking skills to the test. I didn't even try to make the one recipe that's been going around from America's Test Kitchen and the Brown Eyed Baker Blog. I asked a friend what that recipe was like. I could tell some things were missing. I knew the dough needed to be sweeter.

Upon making this bread, I realized that Stella's must use steam to their advantage in softening the crust of their Spicy Cheese Bread. To help us out, you may add melted butter to the top to help. In addition, you may do what Stella's does and put your bread in a plastic bag while warm. My guess is Stella's must bake all the Spicy Cheese Bread and steam them back to hot when bringing you nice warm loaves.

One thing I've noticed over time of getting Stella's Spicy Cheese Bread is that the cheese to bread ratio has changed. I could've sworn the first rime I got a loaf, the gentleman selling us the bread mentioned there was a full pound of cheese in it. I could be misremembering this. It seemed like they started to take out more cheese so there was more bread. This could be to cut costs to keep their prices down. Their bread is still amazing. I wrote the recipe to use 1/2 lb each of the Provolone and Monterey Jack. You may choose to do less. With having more cheese, I find more bites with Cheese included instead of big areas where it's just bread. 

This recipe is likely the closest you can get to Stella's Spicy Cheese Recipe without working for them and knowing their actual recipe. I hope that you will still give Stella's your business as they are a very good bakery. They work so hard to bring you quality.

 

Spicy Cheese Bread

Ingredients:

Bread:

1 C Milk, room temperature, 227 g

0.5 C Sugar, 104 g

1 Packet Instant Yeast, 2 ¼ tsp, 9.7 g

2 Large Eggs plus 1 Egg Yolk, room temperature

4 C High Gluten Bread Flour, 500 g

1 tsp Diastatic Malt Powder, 2.5 g

1 tsp Dried Chives

1 tsp Dried Parsley

1.5 tsp Red Pepper Flakes, 2 g

0.5 C Unsalted Butter, room temperature, cut into Tbsp pieces, 108.4 g

1 tsp Kosher Salt, 4.4 g

0.5 lb Monterey Jack, cut into ½ inch cubes

0.5 lb Provolone, cut into ½ inch cubes

Egg Wash:

1 Large Egg, room temperature

1 Tbsp Milk

Topping:

0.5-1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, melted, optional

Directions:

Make sure your Milk, Butter & Eggs are at room temperature before you start.

In a large bowl, mix Flour with Diastatic Malt Powder, Chives, Parsley & Red Pepper Flakes. Set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, add Milk, Sugar & Yeast. Mix on low. Add Eggs, continuing to mix on low until combined.

Add Flour mixture to your stand mixer bowl & mix on low until mostly combined. Dough might be wet or dry here. Do not add Water or Flour to adjust your dough until after Butter is added. Add Butter 1 piece at a time, making sure each piece is incorporated before adding the next.

Once Butter is mixed in well, add Kosher Salt. Knead on medium for 5-6 min, until dough is smooth. You may need to add more Flour, 1 Tbsp at a time to create a smooth ball if dough is too wet. If dough is too dry, add Water 1 Tbsp at a time until you get the right consistency. Dough should be very soft but not sticky when handling. If you've made homemade cinnamon rolls or soft pretzels, dough will be similar to that consistency.

Oil a large bowl & place dough to rest it in. Cover with plastic wrap. Set in warm place to rise, 1-2 hours or when doubled in size.

When dough is ready, place on a clean counter. No oil or flour should be necessary. Roll dough to a 12 inch by 18 inch rectangle. Spread Cheese on top while leaving a 1 inch border all around. Carefully, tightly roll dough up into a log. Pinch seam and ends together. With your hands starting from the middle, roll log back & forth while spreading the log carefully out to 30 inches. If any holes appear, pinch dough together to seal shut. Take one end of the log & roll into a snail shape. Pinch the outside end in & under to seal.

In a parchment lined pan, place shaped loaf on top. Cover with plastic wrap. Place in warm area to rise 1-2 hours.

When dough has risen a second time, preheat your oven to 350 f. Whisk Egg with Milk. Brush top of loaf with Egg Wash. Sprinkle with Red Pepper Flakes.

Bake loaf for 30 min. Rotate 180 degrees & cover with foil. Bake about another 15 min. Make sure to bake until loaf reaches 190 f in the middle.

Remove from oven. Melt optional Butter & spread on top of loaf while it cools for about 10 min. This helps soften the crust. Serve warm or wait longer to serve at room temperature. To further soften the crust, close loaf in a plastic bag. The steam will soften the crust further.