Herb and Cheddar Bread Wreath

This festive bread is light, pillowy-soft, and full of rich cheesy layers. Fresh or dried herbs give a wonderful, savory depth of flavor to this homemade bread. This easy bread recipe is perfect for holiday baking, or any time of year! Plus, it’s pretty as all get out! Ready to do this?

Ingredients:

You can scroll down and print this recipe on your home printer if you prefer to work from a paper copy. Cause you know how hard it is to scroll on that iPad with dough on your hands? I do.

Dough:

½ C. hot water

1 cup full fat cultured buttermilk

1 tsp. salt

3 T. honey

3 tsp. yeast

1 egg

3 ½ C. all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

Filling: 

2 T. chopped basil

1 T. chopped rosemary

1 T. chopped thyme

3 scallions, finally chopped

3 T. butter

12 oz. grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 egg for egg wash 

Instructions:

As you see, I went with fresh herbs for this loaf, but if you can certainly use dried herbs. If you go with dried, you should use about half the amount that I specified in the recipe.

Melting them in the butter is still a good idea, and may help wake them up a bit! Remember, this recipe is very flexible and you can really put as much or as little herbs as you want, depending on your taste!

So chop those herbs up good, and melt them with the butter!

I went with Tillamook Sharp Cheddar cheese because I love that kick of flavor! However, you could also choose a medium or mild cheese, depending on what you like.

I loved using the Tillamook shreds because they are the perfect size to get those amazing layers of cheese and dough. So good!

Notes on dough:

This dough gets it’s amazing flavor from the buttermilk. Have you not made bread with buttermilk. Oh but you must!

However, if you have only plain milk, it will still make a yummy dough so don’t let that stop you!

This dough has quite a lot of yeast so it rises quickly if kept in a warm place. If the house is cold, you can always put it on top of the oven while it is preheating.

Assemble the wreath!

I roll out my dough on a well floured surface until it is about 18×18 inches, give or take. (I just eyeball it).

Spread the herb butter over the loaf , then simply sprinkle on the cheese. It’s a good idea to leave a small margin on the edges. This is where you will be connecting the ends to form the wreath and they will stay together better without the filling in the way.

Gently roll the dough up into a long log. Then start stretching it until it is the size you want for your wreath. Remember that it has to fit onto your pan, so don’t make it to large!

Also keep in mind that it will be twisted and lose some of the length in the twists.

I cut the log in half lengthwise, so that there are two long strips with the cheesy layers side turned up! Look at all that festive beauty!

I twist the long strips together, then join up the ends in a wreath shape.

Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment. The parchment is very helpful because it’s likely that some of the cheese will stick onto the pan.

I you don’t have parchment, just butter your pan generously!

Top it off with an egg wash for a nicely browned, shiny finish! (An egg wash is just one egg beaten with a tablespoon of water and lightly brushed or fingered on the top of the dough before cooking.)

Proofing and Baking:

Let the wreath sit and rise (or proof) for about half an hour. It will puff up and become pillowy soft again! Then pop it into the pre heated 350° oven for about half an hour. Look how pretty it turned out!

Oh the layers! The super soft bread with the fresh herbs and kick of cheese, heaven.

I cut this wreath into about 12 fat slices, but thin sliced would also make amazing base for appetizers, cheeses, fruit or you name it.

I hope you love this, and please let me know what you think of your final product, and what substitutions you try out. Now go bake!

And don’t forget to save this on Pinterest so you don’t lose track of it! You can always show me your creations on Facebook, Instagram, or use my hashtag #cottagechroniclesblog

Enjoy!

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