Trying out Panera's three-cheese bread a second time

When I made Panera's three-cheese bread the first time (following the recipe on their website), the biggest criticism I received from my food critic was: "Where's the cheese?" The cheeses in that recipe were in big chunks, which may not distribute evenly over the bread. I gathered that it might be a better idea to use a mixture of grated and cubed cheeses. So here comes my second experiment on this same bread. In this experiment, these are the few things I try out:

1. I keep the starter in a warm water bath with lid. This allows the starter to rise pretty fast.

2. I use unsalted butter instead of shortening. In principle, shortening give the bread more rise than butter. But butter has its own characteristic flavor not found in shortening.

3. When making the dough, I mix the yeast into the flour instead of the honey mixture.

4. I use a mixture of grated and cubed cheeses.

Recipe: Cheese bread again (adapted from Panera's three-cheese bread recipe, make 1 loaf)

Ingredients:
Starter
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 teaspoon (tp) dried yeast
- 1/2 cup all-purpose white flour
Dough
- 3/8 cup warm water
- 1.5 tablespoon (TB) honey
- 2 tp dried yeast
- 2 TB and 1/2 tp unsalted butter
- 2.25 cup + 2 TB all-purpose white flour
- 1.5 tp salt
- 1/2 cup grated low-moistrure part-skim mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, asiago, fontina, romano cheeses
- 1/2 cup cubed mix of whole milk cheddar and reduced fat mozzarella
- starter (prepared from ingredients above)
- 1/3 cup water

Procedure:
1. To prepare the starter: mix warm water, yeast and flour to form a liquid paste in a mug. Place in a warm water bath with cover to allow to rise to double the volume. It takes about 30 minutes.
2. To prepare the dough:
- mix flour, salt and yeast thoroughly in a large bowl. Dissolve honey in 3/8 cup of warm water. Set aside. Cut butter into very small pieces.
- Once the starter has doubled its volume, add starter, dissolved honey and chopped butter into the large bowl. Mix with hands to incorporate with the flour mixture. If the mixture seems too dry, add about 1/3 cup of warm water and keep mixing until all ingredients (especially the butter) are fully blended together.
- Once the mixture has incorporated into a dough and has started "cleaning off" the bowl, add in the cheeses in 2 batches. Knead vigorously to incorporate each batch before adding the next batch.
- After adding the cheeses, knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic. The heat generated by the yeast may warm up the cheeses and butter. Set the finished dough in a greased pan. Cover with wet warm towel and keep in a slightly heated oven for 30 minutes. Bake in oven at 400F for 20 minutes.
- Allow to cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Results:
1. This time my dough turns out to be very very moist. It might be because of the increased temperature I use for warming the starter, or because of the butter which contains water. I only add 1/3 cup of extra water when forming the dough. Perhaps I should even cut that out next time.
2. After kneading the dough, I cover it with a damp warm cloth and allow it to rise in the oven. Because of the moisture of the dough, the dough eventually gets stuck to the cloth. The mild heat used during the 30 minutes of rising time also allows the dough to rise pretty rapidly. At the end of the rising time, some of the cheese cubes have slightly melted and the dough is very fluid. I have to reshape the dough with some extra flour. The dough continues to rise rather rapidly after reshaping. I moist the surface with a damp cloth. Then quickly set it in the oven to bake.
3. Despite the setback, the loaf comes out nicely after baking at 400F for 20 minutes and cooling for 30 minutes. The bread has a nice texture, with a thin crust. The cheese within has somewhat melted, giving rise to big holes. I can distinctively tell the different flavors of mozzarella and cheddar in this loaf.
4. In my next experiment, I would keep the temperature warm, and reduce the amount of yeast by 1/3, and probably drop off the extra water.

It's hard to describe how comforting it is to smell the aroma of baked goods in a dark winter evening. Especially for someone who is down with a cold, the warmth of home is a glimpse of heaven.