Sundried Tomatoes N Cheese Bread

It was a weekend and as usual baking time for me. I started baking at 10 pm while I was watching TV. The proofing cycle takes really long and I was awake till midnight waiting for the doubling and to punch down. After greasing the tin finally pushed it into the preheated oven. The dough had risen well and knew that my bread will turn out good. Then just past 15 mins the power disappeared. I was worried my bread would collapse. Prayers to the power gods went unanswered for almost an hour. I must have peered at my rosy bread sitting sadly many times quite sleepily through the glass door of the oven.

After an hour the power came on. The baking resumed. I baked this one a little longer than normal about 45 mins just to avoid uncooked dough from being left inside as this was one single loaf of bread.

It was baked to perfection at 2.00 am and the baker was hungry. It might be an unearthly hour to eat but think of it so many people wake up to eat in the middle of the night. Plus I hadn't even gone to bed. I began tasting the warm freshly baked bread and ate up all that much before I cloud even stop to take a picture. Then I switched of the lights and went off to bed my tummy now comforted till late morning next day.

I woke up as the cell rang. Hi! said the voice at the other end. It was the doctor and our blogger buddy on the other end. I narrated to her the previous night's story. She too advised eating that much bread at an odd hour was bad. I agreed with her sheepishly. Do you recollect buddy?

My Dad wondered aloud if the oven eats up half the loaf after baking. I stuffed his face with a warmed up piece of this wonderful one before he could utter another word untill we were done away with much of the bread. We skipped lunch that day. So presenting to you~~~

To make this bread follow the Classic White bread till the first rise. Use the same measures of ingredients. Before you start working on the dough take 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes chop them up into bits and soak in water.

After the first rise is the shaping of the dough. From here there is twist in the story. Drain the rehydrated tomatoes on a mesh and pat dry lightly. Cube cheddar cheese to small bits till you get about 1/4 cup. Now roll out the dough about 8X12 inches. Sprinkle the rehydrate tomatoes and cheese on it and then roll up into a bundle. Now pat the roll into a greased tray of approx size 8X4. I used an oval one for this shape. Now score the dough to give it the look of a turtle shell. In each cell but a piece of cheese. Like you see here. Leave the dough covered with damp cloth for second rise. After an hour in warm weather OR whenever you see it doubled, this happens in colder weather. Finally you will see miss pinky ready to be baked. Miss pinky gets its color from the robust flavoured and intense colored sun dried tomatoes.

Preheat oven for 10 mins at 190 deg centigrade. Thrust in the tin and let it bake peacefully for 45 mins. Just 5 mins before the oven buzzer goes off brush the top of the loaf with whole milk or butter. Once the baking time is completed remove the loaf from the tin onto the grill and let it cool.

Serve it with a dip of your choice or lather it with cream cheese. This bread tastes best when warm as the cheese is soft and heart warming.