Rosemary Cheese Bread - Easy No-Knead Method

The best bread I've ever made...another winning recipe adapted from Jim Lahey's My Bread

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 1/2 cups half-inch cubes of your favorite semi-soft cheese, I used comte and some dried out bits of brie and rind that I had. Be adventurous and try your favorite combinations!

1 1/3 - 1/2 cups of cool water

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1 Tablespoon finely minced rosemary

3/4 teaspoon yeast

Directions:

1. Whisk together dry ingredients and cheese in a large bowl.

2. Slowly pour water into the dry ingredients and using your hand or a spoon, form the dough into a wet ball.

3. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm area of the kitchen for 12 - 18 hours.

4. Scrape dough onto a well-floured surface, gently knead two or three times into another ball and place seam-side down on a kitchen towel dusted with flour or corn meal. Let dough go through second rise for 2 hours.

5. Thirty minutes before the end of the second rise, pre-heat oven to 450 F....place bottom of Dutch-oven in the oven during the 30-minutes of oven pre-heating. When oven is preheated, pull Dutch oven out, gently turn the dough out and into the bottom of the pot, put the lid on and bake the bread for 35 minutes. Then, take lid off of pot and continue to let the bread bake for another 20-30 minutes until the bread is well-browned and has a hard-hollow sound when you thump the top. If the bread starts to burn, you can replace the lid to continue baking. You want the bread to have enough time to bake all the way through.

6. Remove from oven and let cool for ten minutes in the Dutch oven, then turn the bread out onto a rack to finish cooling for at least an hour. Let cool thoroughly before cutting into the bread...it will be worth the wait.

7. Slice and enjoy with a nice slathering of butter....it's delicious!