Blue Cheese gives a little bite and creamy richness that contrasts with the crunch of the walnuts and the earthy flavor of rye in this delectable Blue Cheese Walnut Rye Bread.

This has been a crazy year for everyone. One of the things I’ve been missing is volunteering in the Seton Sewing Room. It’s great fun working together and the things we make bring comfort to patients while they’re in the hospital.

I’ve been worried about the growing numbers of homeless people during this pandemic. Shelters have closed and so have many of the organizations that feed them. I normally carry protein bars in my car to help them out. Before the pandemic I also started carrying ziplock bags of dog food for those who had dogs.

At the beginning of the pandemic, there were few homeless folks out panhandling and I wasn’t willing to roll down my car windows for anyone. So I got out of the habit of stocking my car with protein bars and dog food.

Now the homeless are out again but the virus is also surging in our area. A friend of mine introduced me to Our Daily Bread. It’s a small group of families who bake bread and donate some other staples (like water and gatoraide) for the homeless.

Each week we bring our donations to Ted and Virginia’s house in central Austin. Ted takes them to a homeless camp and distributes them.

This is my first week baking for them so I’m making something savory and something sweet.

We’ll start with the savory. I had some incredible French blue cheese from Costco. This cheese is the most creamy blue cheese I’ve ever had. The problem is it molds within days of opening it so you have to eat it fast.

And, it’s big. It is from Costco. And, there’s only me. So I needed to use it up fast.

I was watching the Great British Baking Show Master Class and Paul Hollywood showed how to make this Blue Cheese Walnut Rye Bread. It looked incredible and I already had the blue cheese and walnuts.

There were some discrepancies between the recipe I found on PBS and what he demonstrated online so I think I’ve rectified those. I’ve also “translated” the recipe into American measurements.

The result is a wonderfully flavorful bread that is delicious warm or cold.

Yield: 1 loaf

Blue Cheese Walnut Rye Bread

Name: Blue Cheese Walnut Rye Bread
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 3 h 50 min
Yield: 1
Ingredients: 3½ cups + 2 tablespoons (450 g) bread flour; ¼ cup + 2½ tablespoons (50 g) rye flour; ½ tablespoon (10 g) salt; 1 tablespoon (8 g) yeast; 1½ cup water (room temperature); 2 cups (200 g) coarsely chopped walnuts; 7 ounces (200g) Roquefort or other blue cheese; 1 egg

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Additional Time 2 hours 30 minutes

Total Time 3 hours 50 minutes

Ingredients

3½ cups + 2 tablespoons (450 g) bread flour
¼ cup + 2½ tablespoons (50 g) rye flour
½ tablespoon (10 g) salt
1 tablespoon (8 g) yeast
1½ cup water (room temperature)
2 cups (200 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
7 ounces (200g) Roquefort or other blue cheese

Egg Wash

1 egg

Instructions

Put bread flour, rye flour, salt, yeast and water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Starting at the lowest setting, blend the ingredients together with a dough hook until combined. Increase the speed. Knead with the dough hook for 5 minutes. You will have a soft dough
Add the chopped walnuts and mix until combined.
Remove the dough hook and shape the dough into a ball. Cover
with a damp towel and let rise for 90 minutes.
Divide the dough into 4 portions. Flatten each portion into a rectangle about 8 inches long. Divide the cheese into 4 parts and crumble the cheese on top of each piece of dough.
Fold the dough over to encase the cheese. Then roll each of the 4 pieces of dough into 2-foot-long ropes.
Grab one end of the rope and turn it back towards the rest of the rope. Starting with the end you just turned back, continue turning the rope around itself on the table until you have a flat spiral (It will look like a cinnamon roll). Repeat with the outher three ropes. Place spirals into a greased 8” springform pan. Cover and let rise for an hour.
Whisk egg and water together to make an egg wash. Brush over
the top of the bread.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 – 50 minutes.
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes

The original recipe says to roll the dough into 10 inch long ropes but Paul rolled his out to about 2 feet on the show. I baked mine in a 9 inch pan instead of the 8 inch pan in his recipe. If you do not have a springform pan, you can use a cake pan.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 145Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 26mgCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 1gSugar: 0gProtein: 5g

Nutrition data are provided as guidelines only. Please consult a dietitian if you have specific dietary needs.

Comments

Virginia Eubanks says

August 10, 2020 at 10:23 am

Thank you for this wonderful recipe. But before the plunge, I admit a bit of confusion about “ropes” and “spirals.” There are two ropes. I’ve got that. But then what? Do you twist the ropes together, as in a braid? Or, do you leave each one separate, twisted into a spiral rope, with ends tucked in? Then next. Do you bake yours in a 9 in x 4 1/2 loaf pan? or 9×9 square? and how to you place them in the pan? Just start fitting the ropes/spirals around the outer edge and moving toward the center? I’m having trouble picturing this in my brain…thanks for your help in advance.
- Gail Dickinson says
  
  August 17, 2020 at 2:23 pm
  
  Hi Virginia, Thanks for stopping by. I took my oblong pieces and rolled them out like snakes (did you ever do that with clay as a child?) to about 2 feet long. I then took one end, curled it back into the rope and wound the rest of the rope around it on the table. The end result should look like a cinnamon roll (flat spiral). I’ll have to remake the bread and take some photos.

Blue Cheese Walnut Rye Bread

Blue Cheese Walnut Rye Bread