Three-Cheese Stud Muffin

Three-cheese bread that goes well with hearty soups, stews, pasta dishes and is perfect for making grilled cheese!

There’s a book I bought a few years ago by the Queen of all Bread, Rose Levy Beranbaum. It’s called The Bread Bible, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in upping their bread-making game.

Not only does she give the most excellent step-by-step instructions, she goes over in extraordinary detail why things are done, which ingredients will yield the best results, and how to make various adjustments based on preference, time and equipment. It really is as it says, the bread Bible.

My personal favorite is what she calls a Stud Muffin. It’s a three-cheese bread that’s baked in a soufflé dish and it’s studded with pockets of cheese. It’s great fresh out of the oven, slathered with butter, it makes for wonderful toast and it turns a grilled cheese sandwich into a masterpiece. 

The bread has to be started the day before you want to serve it, which makes it nice for when you have a busy afternoon and want fresh bread but don’t have time to make it.

I’ve left all the ingredients in gram measurements because I find when making bread that I have much better results than when trying to use volume measurements. If you’re serous about bread baking, or even baking in general, you should invest in a kitchen scale. They are a game changer.

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Prep Time 2 days d

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Servings 12

Equipment

• 1 souffle dish or coffee can greased

Ingredients

  

Dough Starter

• 156 grams all-purpose flour
• 2.4 grams instant yeast
• 177 grams water room temperature

Dough

• 56 grams parmesan cheese shredded
• 56 grams romano cheese shredded
• 343 grams all-purpose flour
• 4 grams instant yeast
• 6.6 grams salt
• 2.5 grams black pepper
• 56 grams unsalted butter softened
• 118 grams cold water
• 1 large egg
• 70 grams cheddar cheese cut into 1/4 dice, see note

Glaze

• flaked sea salt if desired
• 1 egg beaten

Instructions

 

• To make the starter, whisk together the flour, heat and water until smooth. Cover and set aside for at least an hour, up to four hours.
• To make the dough, add all but a scant 1/4 cup of flour to a food processor, along with the yeast, salt and pepper. Pulse two or three times to combine. Add the starter on top. Cut the butter into chunks and add on top of the starter.
• In a measuring cup with a spot, whisk the egg and cold water together. Turn the machine on, and drizzle the egg/water mixture through the shoot. Stop the machine, add in the shredded cheeses and process for about 15 seconds or until the mixture forms a dough ball. If the mixture will not form a ball, begin adding in the remaining 1/4 cup of flour a tablespoon at a time or until a ball forms. The ball will feel slightly sticky.
• Turn dough onto a lightly-floured counter and flatten to a rectangle. Press the cheddar, minus about two tablespoons, onto the dough. Knead to incorporate the cheese and roll into a ball.
• Place dough into a greased bowl, cover with greased plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least overnight or up to two days. (Punch the dough down a couple of times during the initial hour to prevent it from rising too much.)
• Turn the cold dough onto a counter, kneading slightly and forming a ball. Place into a greased 7” x 3.5” soufflé dish (mine is only 2.5” high, so I constructed a foil collar to line the inside if the dish…see the pictures…Rose says you can also used a greased coffee can). Cover lightly with wax paper and let it rise for three to four hours or until it almost triples.
• One hour before baking time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place your oven shelf at the lowest level and set a baking stone or baking sheet on the rack.
• Brush the dough with the beaten egg. Using a skewer or a chopstick, poke small holes in the top of the bread and fill with the remaining chunks of cheddar. Top with flaked sea salt if desired.
• Place the dish onto the hot stone or baking sheet. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown on top (a skewer poked into the center of the bread should come out clean).
• Cool in the dish for 30 minutes before unmolding. (Rose recommend unmolding onto a pillow covered with plastic wrap to prevent the side from caving in, as the sides are fragile.) Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Note – Rose calls for gruyere, but I didn’t have any so I used cheddar and it came out perfectly.