The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Jalapeno cheddar loaf

wmtimm627's picture
wmtimm627

Jalapeno cheddar loaf

A local chain of bakeries here in Chicagoland makes specialty loaves a couple days a week and there are some that you have to reserve in advance to get any sometimes. My favorite is a whole wheat with (literally) chunks of cheddar and jalapeno pieces all throughout the loaf. They used to make them like a regular sandwich loaf, but now it's more of a round hearth style.

I've tried for the last 13 years to duplicate it, but it always seems to come out too dense. What I really like about the loaf is that you can actually see the cheese and peppers throughout.

I'm not really sure what to look for in a recipe like this. Most everything I've found that uses cheddar is shredded, not chunky. I prefer slices of whole, fresh jalapeno. Does anybody out there have anything close to this?

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne

wmtimm627

 

For a 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich bread I would recommend Peter Reinhart's "Everyday 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread: from his "Artisan Breads Every Day".  It is not too dense and it uses an over night retard which takes away some of the bitterness of the bran.

 

Could you post your recipe and the members here might be able to suggest a way to improve your existing recipe.

 

Dwayne

 

wmtimm627's picture
wmtimm627

Of all the Reinhart books that I own, that isn't one of them. I've purchased a good number of books in the past with the intention of finding ANYTHING that would come close to the loaf I was purchasing at Great Harvest. That endeavor got me interested in bread baking as a hobby, which brought me to this site.

I can't remember the last time I attempted to make this loaf, or the recipe I tried. One of the last ones I used had molasses in it, but that was years ago.

My favorite thing to do these days is to make baguettes and pizza using my food processor, courtesy of Van Over's Best Bread Ever. No matter how much I mess with the ingredients, it always turns out great. It was one of the books I got from Amazon in an attempt to duplicate the jalapeno cheddar loaf. I already had a food processor, so...