Trying Panera's three-cheese bread recipe

At our church's congregational dinner, a friend brought a loaf of cheese bread which tasted extremely delicious. It's the three-cheese bread from Panera. I was so impressed, I simply could not forget its taste after weeks. One day I found out that Panera actually has the three-cheese bread recipe (from "The Panera Bread Cookbook) on its own website. The recipe makes two loaves. As a start, I tried out making one loaf. I also replaced the three cheeses with the two available at home. The following is my experimental recipe.

Recipe: Cheese bread (adapted from Panera's 3-cheese recipe, make 1 loaf)


Ingredients:
Starter
- 1/2 cup warm water (warm to touch)
- 1 teaspoon (tp) dried yeast
- 1/2 cup all-purpose white flour
- 1/2 tp sugar
Dough
- 3/8 cup warm water
- 1.5 tablespoon (TB) honey
- 2 tp dried yeast
- 2 TB and 1/2 tp shortening
- 2.25 cup + 2 TB all-purpose white flour
- 1.5 tp salt
- 3/4 cup reduced fat feta and cheddar cheeses, cut to 1/2" cubes
- starter (prepared from ingredients above)
- 1/2 cup water


Procedure:
1. To prepare the starter: mix warm water and yeast in a bowl, and stir until yeast completely dissolve. Add 1/2 tp sugar to feed the yeast. Add flour to incorporate fully, forming a thick paste. Let sit at warm area for 30 minutes (I leave it in a toaster oven that has been heated up gently.)
2. To prepare the dough: sieve or mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Set aside. Mix water, honey and yeast in a small bowl and stir to dissolve the yeast completely. Add the honey yeast mixture to the large bowl. Add shortening, cheese, and fermented starter to the bowl. Mix together all the ingredients until they incorporate. Add small amount of water if necessary (up to 1/2 cup) while mixing. Once all the ingredients have incorporated, knead in the bowl until the dough becomes moist and elastic. Kneading takes about 5 minutes.
3. Heat oven to 150F for a few minutes. Turn heat off. Roll the dough into a smooth ball. Do not flatten. Place it on a greased baking sheet, cover the surface of dough with a warm very damp cloth (damp enough that water can be squeezed out, but not dripping), and let sit for 30 minutes. Then remove cloth. Dough will rise noticeably, but will not double its volume. Score the loaf with a sharp knife to allow for expansion during baking. Heat up oven to 400F and bake for 20 minutes or until top is nicely brown. Then allow to cool for 20-30 minutes before slicing. Some cheese may ooze out and burn while baking. Discard burnt parts when served. 

After making the loaf, I've made a few observations:


1. I've noticed in Panera's recipe that this recipe is meant for quick baking. In traditional recipes that use the "straight dough method", the bread dough is allowed to rise at least twice, each time for 1 to 2 hours until its volume doubles. I guess this is compensated in this recipe by using the starter (this is called "the sponge method"). When I first studied the recipe, I did not know that 100% fresh yeast = 50% dried yeast = 33.3% instant yeast. So I substituted the original recipe's fresh yeast with equal amount of dried yeast (which gives a the large quantity of yeast). An immediate and desirable result is that my loaf rises very well within a short time. (Perhaps that's exactly what is needed; my yeast is old because I use it so infrequently.)


2. A dough is formed when it starts "cleaning the bowl", that is, pulling bits of flour mixture off from the mixing bowl onto itself. Once formed, the dough needs to be kneaded for about 5-10 minutes. I do the kneading in the large bowl because I like the curvature. To test the doneness of dough, stretch it with fingers and let go. If it pulls back easily, it's basically done.


3. With my choices of cheese, the cheddar melts really nicely in the bread, while the feta remains in crumbs. The chemistry behind this is that lower-fat cheeses tend to toughen as they are heated (I think that's what happened to the feta), so they may not be good candidates for cooking. But among the choices of whole milk cheeses, I suspect that Cheddar may "oil off" under high heat because of its fat content, which may happen if the bread is baked longer. Next time I may try Panera's 3 cheeses: Romano, Parmesan and Asiago. These three are very hard ripened cheeses, which may melt and blend more easily when heated.


4. When the loaf came out of the oven, I was so excited that I started cutting it right away. However, the interior was still too moist and was smudged under the pressure of the knife. Once the bread cooled down, the texture became much better. That's why it's absolutely necessary for the bread to cool before serving.


5. For reasons yet to be understood, this bread is baked at 400F throughout, instead of the usually recommended 400F for 10 minutes followed by lower temperatures 325-375F for 25-30 minutes. Because of the high temperature, my baking time is shortened to 20 minutes. The high temperature gives the bread a very nice golden crust. However, at such temperature, cheeses on the surface burn easily. I believe that the thick crispiness of the crust comes from my covering the dough with a very damp cloth. The cloth is damp enough that water can be squeezed out, but not dripping. So, after proofing, the dough surface is smooth and moist, but not stuck to the cloth. 


6. The entire process from preparing the ingredients to serving can be done within 2 hours, which is considered really fast for yeast bread:

• 30 minutes of starter preparation;
  
• 10 minutes of dough preparation;
  
• 30 minutes of dough rising;
  
• 20 minutes of bakng;
  
• 30 minutes of cooling 

7. Following recommendations by the Panera cookbook, I slice the unfinished loaf and freeze it wrapped tightly in double plastic. For full unsliced loaf, it is recommended that the loaf be defrosted 2-3 hours before serving. For individual slices, 30 minutes at room temperature is enough. After defrosting, moist the entire surface with water (do not soak). Then reheat the entire loaf in oven at 400F to restore the crispiness of the crust, or use toaster oven to toast individual slices. 


As my first attempt, I did not get the same impressive bread that is sold at the store. Some reviewers of "The Panera Bread Cookbook" have remarked that most of the recipes in this cookbook are not authentically Panera. But for a beginner, it's fun enough to discover new things. I also like these recipes because of their general nutrition consciousness. This cheese bread is not dripping with fat. :)



A day or two later, reminiscing the taste of the Panera bread I ate earlier (which motivated me to try out this recipe), I couldn't resist walking in to the store to pick up a three-cheese demi for lunch. To my surprise, the demi from the store did not taste all that different from the homemade loaf that I just ate for brunch that same morning, except for the differences in texture and cheeses. Perhaps it's really the impression that matters! Now I'm pretty convinced that the recipe is close enough.