Moreish - Goats cheese and Thyme Potato bread

For me the most moreish bread ever

Goats cheese is a bit of a Marmite cheese, so to speak, some people adore it others cannot even cope with a whiff of it as it reminds them of an animal pen. I have to say I love, love, love it, I love the texture the way it ripens from a dry core to a soft giving edge. Cheese I do love, and our town is particularly favoured by the fantastic cheese shop, Paxton and Whitfield. A shop you know is there even before you go in just by the beautiful aromas that escape the confines of the chilly interior. The blues, the smoked, the washed rind cheeses, so many....my absolute favourite is Stichelton, a cheese made in the same method as Stilton however only using unpasteurised milk, to me it is softer and has a more creamy texture, just perfect.

However this bread is just utterly moreish and is made from standard 'Goats cheese', you return and return to this bread cutting off another corner or wedge until all of a sudden it has gone.

This weekend I followed the recipe to the ounce and found that for our tastes we want more umphh.... adding more of the stronger flavours. Therefore as I write the recipe I will add in brackets quantities which will make a more umphhhy loaf, and leave out of brackets the recipe as it was given to me.

Ingredients
4 Spring Onions finely sliced (7)
1 Medium Potato (2)
1 rounded teaspoon (tsp) chopped Thyme (well you saw my quantities, probably around 3/4)
6oz Self Raising flour
1 tsp of salt
1/8th tsp Cayenne Pepper ( well probably more like 1 tsp)
1 large egg (2)
2 tablespoons (tbs) of milk
1 heaped tsp Wholegrain mustard ( 1tbs)

•  Chop all the onions across and finely and place in a bowl

Spring onions finely chopped

•  Grate the peeled potato and add to the onions

Potato, peeled and grated

•  Strip the leaves from the Thyme bunch and chop finely. Place with the other ingredients.

Thyme leaves finely chopped

•  Add the Self Raising flour to the bowl

•  Next measure out cayenne pepper to your taste.

Hot Cayenne

•  Then add - salt and wholegrain mustard. 

Wholegrain mustard, salt and egg added

•  Chop the goats cheese into large chunks, I usually use two goats cheese rounds. Use one round in the mixture and leave the other quantity to dress the outside of the bread. Mix all these dry ingredients together. Then mix in the egg (s) and milk to form the wet dough. The dough should not be dry but fairly sticky and wet.

Portion of cubed goats cheese

•  Place on a greaseproof tray. Use the set aside chopped goats cheese and press the cheese into the dough carefully.

Combine ingredient and place on greaseproof paper

•  Place in the oven at 190c for 45 minutes (50), depending how golden it looks I sometimes turn the oven off and leave the bread in the oven, on the timer, for another 10 minutes

This is a great bread if you are doing a family snack type lunch, we have used this in the lounge with the extended family to have a full cheese board, tapas style dips and nibbles, large pork pie and scotch eggs with salad, coleslaw and chutneys. On those occasions two of these will be needed or ? you could make the following

Sage, parsnip and parmesan bread or

Feta, black olives and Red onion bread

Follow the same recipe but use sage instead of thyme, parsnip instead of potato and parmesan instead of goats cheese. Vary quantities to your liking. 

Again with Feta use it instead of goats cheese and red onion instead of of spring onions, keep the potato and the wholegrain mustard.