It’s usually not much fun having a birthday two weeks after Christmas. But when the day dawned instead of lazing about with a glass of bucks fizz and opening my cards, I was up and dressed and in the car by 9am haring towards my nearest Lidl to buy a birthday present for myself. Obviously I wasn’t going there for ‘haute couture’! No, I wanted a ‘Pierre a Pizza’ a bake stone and they were on offer that day and as you know with Lidl they have a few and you have to get there fast. I’ve wanted a bake stone for ages but they are usually a little pricey and not easy to find.
A couple of hours later having lunched on crisp homemade pizza and a reasonable amount of red wine, I could n’t wait to try the bake stone with bread. Professional bread ovens have solid floors and by using a stone in your oven you can get the same effect, which produces a crispier crust, I was also hoping that pastry items would benefit. I mixed up a cheese bread in the bread machine on the dough /pizza dough setting then shaped it on to the baking sheet and placed on the stone. The results were great, I’ve since tried it with gougeres (savoury choux pastry) placing them on the rack above the stone and the results were excellent nice and crisp.
The stone comes with a baking sheet so that you don’t have wash the stone, which could damage it as it absorbs water and could, crack. The stone needs to be heated up in the oven for 30mins before cooking anything; you also need to leave it to cool in the oven before removing. If it cools down too quickly it would crack so it makes sense to have a few things to cook one after the other. It will even carry on cooking with the oven turned off. For an even better effect you can spray the sides of the oven with some water being careful not to spray the light or the fan (opps!).
This is the most wonderful Cheese Bread recipe, you can use any different types of cheese, I personally like a good strong hard cheese (cheddar, gruyere) and some Parmesan. Sometimes some blue cheese and a handful of walnuts. Just stick to a total of 150g of cheese mixing the ratios to taste, I use 100g strong cheese and 50g Parmesan. You can add toppings such as sunflower, poppy, sesame seeds or oats, stud it with olives the options are endless. This recipe makes a big loaf and can be cut up in to portions and frozen. It slices well and toasts beautifully, it’s also very light thanks to the mascarpone unlike some cheese breads. Just don’t get carried away it may be light but still packs the calories!
This is something you will want to make year round,comfort food in the winter with soup, fabulous sandwiches or a ploughman’s for a quick lunch and chunks dipped in to the dressing of a salad in the summer. Enjoy! 
Cheese Bread
180ml water – 1 egg – 100g mascarpone cheese
400g white bread flour – 50g granary flour – 2tsp sugar – 1 tsp salt
7.5ml easy blend yeast – 100g grated strong hard cheese – 50g grated Parmesan cheese
3 tbsp chopped fresh chives plus any toppings etc 1 egg yolk and 1 tbsp water.
Add the water, egg and mascarpone cheese to the pan. Sprinkle over both types of flour. Add the sugar and salt in separate corners make an indent in the middle of the flour and add the yeast. Set on the basic dough/pizza setting and start.
When the machine beeps add the grated cheeses and chives. When the cycle has finished turn on the oven to 250c having placed the bake stone in the middle of the oven. Then turn out the dough on a floured surface and gently knock back and shape in to a round loaf about 16 – 20cm. Place on a lightly oiled baking tray. Cover with oiled cling film and leave in a warm place for 30-45 mins. After 30 mins turn the oven down to 200c.
Mix the egg and water and brush the glaze over the bread then add any seeds or toppings. Score the top of the bread in to eight segments. Bake for 30 – 35 mins or until golden brown and hollow sounding. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
