This Goat Cheese Prosciutto Bread Twist is a delicious combination of some of my favorite flavors. Enriched brioche dough (butter), prosciutto, chopped walnuts, figs, and of course, the ultimate answer to making any meal delicious: CHEESE.
Why are all of my favorite foods so high calorie?
Not interested in this list of all of the high-fat foods that make me feel alive? Skip to the next heading.
Jump to RecipeMy first-favorite-food is butter. I mean, this is an obvious one, and it should be everyone’s favorite food. Even if you don’t acknowledge that you love it, I’m sorry, but you do. It is in all of the things that taste good in this world, including in this pillowy bread dough. I love it salted, unsalted, melted, shmeared on things, browned, and folded into every baked good. The French know their food, and they put butter in everything for a reason.
My second-favorite-food is mayonnaise. This is slightly more controversial, but for all of you mayo-haters out there, you’re wrong and you know it. And none of this miracle whip or “low fat” nonsense, either. Only regular high fat Hellmann’s Mayonnaise for me. I’m that person that asks for extra mayo at Jimmy John’s and unashamedly dips my french fries in it at every other establishment. I have been known to cover my bacon in mayo, and I’m not afraid to admit that it was amazing.
My third-favorite-food is cheese. (Are you noticing a high-fat trend at all?) Cheese is a versatile and perfect substance. Not sure if your homemade dinner that you threw together out of the remnants of other meals will satisfy? Throw on some cheese. Your burger seems a little dry? Add another slice of American. Wanting a classy appetizer to impress people at a dinner party? They call that cheese plate a charcuterie board now, and it is both a recognized symbol of the bourgeoisie and everyone’s favorite pre-dinner snack. Unwilling to cook after a long day at work? All you need is a block of cheese, a knife, and any old carbohydrate product you have in your pantry, and you have an entire meal to act as a backdrop for your Netflix stupor.
Anyway. I love cheese and I wanted to make a bread to highlight one of my favorite types: goat cheese.
Goat Cheese Prosciutto Bread Twist: the elements.
I really love making homemade bread, and I especially love filling them with delicious things. It is an opportunity to practice achieving a flavor balance, and it is sort of like a game for me. You need all the big flavors: something sweet, something salty, something creamy. I also like to change up the texture and add something crunchy.
This bread filling has many of those elements, and it needed a rich and sturdy dough to stand up to them. So, I went with an enriched dough, very similar to a brioche, but with no sugar to make it suitable for a savory loaf. It is similar to the dough that I used for my Italian Babka recipe. That means that this bread has loads of butter, and it is quite sloppy and sticky, so I don’t recommend making this by hand. Either use the dough hook attachment on a stand mixer, or use dough hooks on a hand mixer.
When Matt and I were in Michigan last week, we paid a visit to Yoder’s, an Amish grocery store near my parent’s house. Matt went in bound and determined to buy some local bacon, which resulted in a purchase of six-and-a-half pounds of the stuff, currently sitting in various bags in my freezer. I perused the cheese case and sweets, but I was ultimately tempted by a package of locally-made prosciutto, which I incorporated into this bread for a salty element.
There was some crumbled goat cheese in my fridge, so that seemed like an obvious choice for a cheese loaf. I threw in some chopped walnuts for texture and an ingredient that some people may be unfamiliar with: dried figs.
Dried figs are genuinely delicious. They are sweet, pleasantly seedy, and are frequently featured on cheese boards in the form of fig jam. If you don’t like figs, feel free to substitute with apricots or just leave them out altogether. This bread will still taste great without them.
A new shape: the four-strand twist.
When I was home, my mom and I also watched an episode of the Great British Baking Show Masterclass. These episodes feature Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry instructing the audience on tried-and-true recipes. Paul made a cherry and chocolate bread that had this shape, and I knew I definitely needed to try it.
It’s hard to explain the procedure, but I did take some pictures, so hopefully you can catch it. It is honestly way more intuitive than it seems from this cumbersome description, do not despair. Really. I went back and reread my description of this shaping, and I somehow make it sound impossible, but I swear it is easy. Trust yourself. I also have a quick video. However, if this shape looks too weird to you, feel free to just make two long strands after rolling up the dough, and twist them together. Boom, perfect twist without all of this folding and whatnot.
If you do want to try shaping into that pretty braid, you start by rolling out your dough into a big rectangle and sprinkling on all your fillings. Then, you roll it up into a big sausage.
After rolling that as long as you can, you cut it in half and roll the two piece out long as well, about two feet if you can manage it.
You arrange them in a cross on your work space, and then the twisting begins. You always work with the two pieces that are across from each other. Starting with the strand on the bottom of the cross, you cross the two pieces.
(This part is difficult to describe, make sure to watch the video at the bottom.)
Then, pick up the other two strands and cross them over one of the ones that you originally crossed. This is the direction you will be braiding.
Pick up the other two strands, and cross over the one in between them.
Continue this process until you are close to the end of the strands, then just tuck the ends under, forming a braided loaf.
https://giphy.com/embed/rj5EfRm80BtasEi5Iq
(That is a gif of me doing this braid, watch it for a reference.)
I find it really satisfying to make homemade bread, and this Goat Cheese And Prosciutto Bread Twist was no exception. The sliced bread was full of flavor, texturally interesting, and beautiful. It was a great accompaniment to my smoked ribs last night! (That mushy stuff is cauliflower rice with onions and whatnot.)
What are your top three favorite foods? Are they as basic as mine?
Goat Cheese Prosciutto Bread Twist!
Course: BreadCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Intermediate8
servings30
minutes40
minutes150
kcalThis twisted enriched bread is loaded with goat cheese, prosciutto, chopped walnuts, and figs for a satisfying loaf that would make a great addition to any cheese board.
Ingredients
500 grams bread flour
10 grams salt
10 grams instant yeast (or one packet)
150 ml milk
20 ml heavy cream
3 large eggs
2 sticks (225 grams) unsalted butter, very soft
8-10 slices prosciutto, torn into rough pieces
100 grams crumbled goat cheese
50 grams chopped walnuts (optional)
50 grams chopped dried figs (optional)
1 beaten egg for egg wash
Directions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, add your flour. Add the salt to one side of your bowl and the yeast to the other. In a large liquid measuring cup, combine the milk and cream, and microwave for thirty seconds to warm it slightly. Dump the eggs into the measuring cup. Using the dough hook, begin mixing the flour mixture on medium low. Stream in the liquid ingredients as it is mixing, and mix until well-combined, about 2 minutes. Start adding your butter, one tablespoon at a time. It should take about 2 minutes. Mix until homogenous, and then mix on medium speed for an additional five minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally. It will still be very sticky.
- Oil the inside of a large bowl with a little olive oil or canola oil, using a paper towel to sweep the oil around the bowl. Pour in your dough, cover, and leave to rise in a warm place until it is doubled in size. Because this dough is enriched, it could take a little longer than a typical bread dough, up to two hours.
- When it has risen, flour a large workspace. Roll out your dough to a very large rectangle, about 1 foot by 2.5 or 3 feet. Layer on your prosciutto, goat cheese, walnuts, and figs, creating an even layer over the dough. Starting at one of the long ends, roll it up into a long sausage. Roll it back and forth with your hands, adding more flour as needed, making it as long as you can. Cut it in half so that you have two pieces. Roll each piece back and forth, making them longer, until they are about two feet long. Add more flour to your workspace as necessary.
- You can either simply twist these two pieces together to create a loaf, or make a four-strand crossed plait using the instructions listed in the blog post above.
- Leave to rise for another hour, covered.
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Brush your risen loaf with your egg wash. Bake for twenty minutes until nice and golden, and then cover with foil and continue baking for about another 15 to 20 minutes. It should reach an internal temperature of 190 degrees F.
- Allow it to fully cool, slice, and enjoy!
