Jalapeno Cheddar Stuffed Bread

A little bit of sweet, spicy and savory are all wrapped up together in this delicious and beautiful braided bread! You'll love every bite!

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Prep Time: 3 30

Cook Time: 33

Total Time: 4 3

Servings: servings (1 large loaf)

To the bowl of a stand mixer, add the water, oil, eggs, sugar, yeast, salt and about half of the flour. Attach dough hook to mixer. Mix on low speed until combined and smooth, about 1-2 minutes.
While on low speed, gradually add the remaining half of flour, about 1/4 cup at a time. Allow each addition of flour to fully combine before adding more. Once all 4 & 1/2 cups (540g) of flour has been incorporated, stop mixer, and lightly tap the dough with finger. If it feels excessively wet and sticky, add an additional 1-2 Tablespoons of flour and mix until incorporated. Stop mixer and check again. Add up to another 1/4 cup (30g) flour as needed. Dough should feel soft and slightly tacky (slightly sticking to fingers), but not wet.
Knead dough on low speed for 6-8 minutes, until smooth and cohesive.

Place dough into a large, greased bowl. Cover and let rise in warm spot in the kitchen for about 90 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Deflate dough and place on lightly floured work surface. Roll out to a rectangle about 16x20-inches in size.
Layer the cheese, jalapenos and bacon in three rows along the length of the dough. Each row should have a two-inch border. With a pizza cutter, cut the dough between each row of filling. You'll make two cuts, dividing the dough into three strips.
Carefully roll up each strip of dough lengthwise. Pinch the seams of the dough shut to keep it from opening. You'll end up with three long ropes of filled dough.
Pinch the three ropes of dough together on one end. Braid the dough. Begin by taking the right piece and bring it to the center, crossing it over the center piece. Then take the left piece and bring it to the center, crossing it over the center piece. Repeat until entire loaf is braided. Pinch the dough together at each end to keep the braid from unraveling.
Place diagonally on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Lightly cover with plastic wrap and let rise 45-60 minutes. Towards the end of the rise time, preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.
Remove the plastic wrap and brush the surface of the loaf with egg wash.

Bake for 28-33 minutes or until golden brown on top.
Remove pan from oven and place on a wire cooling rack. Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

*You can swap out the granulated sugar for equal amount of honey
**Sourdough option: You can swap out the instant yeast for 1/2 cup (140g) of active starter. Be sure to reduce the amount of water and flour by the amount you are adding with your starter. Also remember that rise times will most likely be at least doubled when using sourdough option.
Windowpane Test: After kneading, take a piece of dough and stretch it. It should stretch several inches without tearing and be slightly translucent. If it tears easily, knead it an additional 2 minutes and check again.
Poke Test: When trying to decide if dough has risen enough for final proof, gently press on the side of the loaf with your fingertip. It should leave an indent that slowly springs back. That indicates the dough has risen enough and is ready to bake. If it does not leave an indent, it needs more time to rise. If it leaves and indent that never springs back it has risen too long.
This makes a very large loaf. You can opt to divide the dough in half and bake two smaller loaves. If so, bake one loaf at a time, reducing the bake time by 5-7 minutes.