cream cheese, chili & onion bagel loaf
Autumn dinner party season is full steam ahead! Whether you’re preparing for more intimate gatherings or larger and louder Friendsgiving soirées, tis the season to make food for your friends and loved ones. We’ve been loving making recipes from The Great British Baking Show: Favorite Flavors, especially the Cream Cheese, Chili & Onion Bagel Loaf recipe. There are some fabulous seasonings in this tear-and-share loaf: pickled green chillies add bite; chives give a subtle hint of onion; and the mixture of sweeter white and nuttier black sesame seeds perfectly complements the smooth, sharp cream cheese.
Whether you add this to your dinner party menu or simply make it for breakfast with cream cheese and lox, you won’t regret adding this to your recipe rotation.
The Great British Baking Show: Favorite Flavors is on sale now!
Ingredients
Makes: 1 loaf
Hands on: 40 mins + rising
Bake: 40 mins
You will need:
Standard 8 1/2 in x 4 1/2 in loaf tin, greased then lined (base and ends) with parchment paper
oiled proving bag
For the dough:
7 1/4 cups strong white bread flour
3/4 cups plain flour
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole milk
3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened, plus 1 tbsp melted to glaze
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tsp olive oil, for greasing
For the filling:
1 cup full-fat cream cheese
6 spring onions, finely sliced
3 pickled green chillies, drained and finely chopped
2 tbsp snipped chives
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the topping:
1 tbsp mixed black and white sesame seeds
1 tsp onion granules
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp poppy seeds
1 tsp sea-salt flakes
baking instructions
Make the dough. Mix both types of flour with the yeast, sugar and salt in a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook until combined.
Heat the milk to lukewarm and pour it into the dry ingredients with the 3 1/2 tbsp of softened butter and the egg. Hix on low to combine, then knead on medium for 4-5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Tip out the dough onto the work surface and shape it into a ball. Lightly oil the bowl, return the dough, cover it with a damp tea towel and leave it to rise for 45-60 minutes, until doubled in size.
Prepare the filling. While the dough is rising, tip the cream cheese into a mixing bowl and add the spring onions, pickled chillies and chives. Season with salt and pepper and mix to combine.
Shape and fill the dough. Lightly flour the work surface and knead the dough gently for 20 seconds to knock it back. Weigh the dough and divide it into 12 equal balls. Roll each ball into a 4 3/4 inch disc.
Spread l tablespoon of the filling onto each disc and fold the discs in half to make 12 half-moon-shaped dough sandwiches. Spread the remaining filling on top of 11 of the dough sandwiches, then stack them into pairs - one stack will not have cream cheese on the top. Place a pair of dough sandwiches into one end of the lined loaf tin, cheese-side inwards and rounded-side uppermost. Continue stacking to fill the length of the tin, ending with the dough without the cream cheese on top. Slide the tin into the oiled proving bag and leave the loaf to prove at room temperature for 45 minutes, until light and puffy and risen by at least one third.
Make the topping. In a small bowl combine the sesame seeds, onion granules, garlic granules, poppy seeds and sea salt.
Bake the loaf. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush the top of the loaf with the melted butter and scatter with the topping mixture. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until deep golden and well risen. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.