Round Loaf with Cheese

Another round bread I made, of which I am secretly very proud :)
I was looking for a interesting recipe and methods of bread decoration and I came upon this wonderful blog.
It was pure serendipity that the dough I liked was refrigeratable. I began making the bread in the late afternoon, in between dinner preparations and when the dough was finally ready to be manipulated I was too tired. So, I covered the bowl with stretchy foil and left it in the fridge for the night. On the following day I had the dough ready to be made into beautiful fresh and delicious bread just in time for dinner.

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup of milk
• ¼ cup of yogurt plus a pinch of baking soda
• 10 g fresh yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp honey
• ¼ cup of oil
• 1 egg + 1 egg white (1 yolk + 1 tsp water + 1 tsp oil for glazing)
• 4 cups of flour
• 400 g white cheese

1 cup = 240 ml

Activate the yeast with1/2 cup of  lukewarm milk, honey and 1 tsp of flour. Sift the flour and add the ingredients and the starter. Knead the dough and leave it to rise for an hour. Knead the dough again to push the air away. At this point you can leave it covered in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

The preparation: cut the dough into four equally sized balls, spread each ball flat and cover with oil and cheese. Do not grease or cover with cheese the last sheet. Cut into 16 pieces some 2-3 cm from the center of the circle. Rotate each couple of pieces - the right one clock wise, the left one of the couple - anticlockwise. Place in the baking dish, cover and leave for an hour to rise. Glaze and bake in a preheated oven at 180 C.

Because of the solid amount of cheese I did not even attempt to replicate Diana's amazing decoration (her bread looks like a piece of art, really!). But I did take care not to overbake it this time and I actually found a little trick for better baking - cover the dish with aluminum foil the last 15 minutes before taking the bread out of the oven. The crust was perfectly baked and the inside was very fluffy and thready.

Heartily recommend that recipe, the bread was delicious hot and cold too.