Baking bread is an art. And this loaf is my @#$ing Mona Lisa.
Granted it might not be the prettiest or most professionally made loaf. But it’s what’s on the inside that counts. And the inside is stuffed with heaps of garlic and shredded Asiago so that sure counts for something.
And what’s better than a room filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread? It’s a room filled with freshly baked garlic Asiago bread. For best results, serve with freshly churned garlic basil butter.
Time
- 2 hours & 15 minutes prep
- 25 Cooking
What You’ll Need
- 1 package of .75 oz rapid rise yeast
- 3 cups of flour
- ~1 cup of water
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tsp garlic salt
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 ½ cups of shredded Asiago cheese
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp sugar
What You’ll Do
- In a large bowl, add a tablespoon of sugar to a cup of warm (~110 degrees) water. Stir.
- Add yeast package, cover with a towel, and let the yeast sit for about 10 minutes.
- Then add 3 cups of flour, black pepper, garlic salt and powder, onion powder, basil, and olive oil. Mix with a stand mixer or by hand, and form into a dough ball (add more water if the dough is too dry).
- Knead for about 10 minutes. Then place the dough in a plastic ziplock bag, or a large bowl with sealable lid. Cover and let the dough rest for about 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 425. (Try steaming your oven for a flakier crust!)
- Mix the shredded asiago and minced garlic evenly into your dough ball. The way I like to do it is to add about 1/3 of the cheese and minced garlic to the top of the dough, then kind of press it into the dough. Then fold the dough over to form a pocket of cheese, and repeat, adding another third of the cheese and some more garlic to the new top of the dough. Fold it over again, so that both cheese layers are completely covered by dough. It creates a kind of swirl effect inside the loaf once the bread bakes. Then shape the dough into a bread pan (or freestyle it), brush with a small drizzle of olive oil. Then add the remainder of the cheese and garlic to the top of dough.
- Bake for about 25 minutes. Serve warm!