This Chunky Cheddar Cheese Bread is soft and loaded with chunks of cheddar cheese, together with shredded cheese. Lightly flavoured with a bit of mustard and garlic and topped with sesame seeds.
There’s cheese bread and then there’s cheeeeeese bread. This is definitely the latter. This is the bread you should make when you really want the full-on cheese bread experience. It’s excellent eaten out of hand, with butter. It’s great toasted or as a sandwich bread and of course, it makes a pretty much perfect grilled cheese.
This bread uses an interesting technique. First the dough is rolled out, then scattered with shredded cheese, then rolled up jelly-roll style. Then it’s cut in half lengthwise and then cut into little pieces. Those pieces are scattered haphazardly into the loaf pans, mixed with a generous amount of cheese chunks. It’s all topped off with a bit of melted butter, a pinch of garlic salt and a sprinkling with sesame seeds. It bakes up into a solid loaf, that’s very sliceable, with no gaps that you often get with just jelly-rolled cheese bread.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Cheddar Cheese – while you can use any cheddar cheese here, I think an “Old” cheddar, either white or yellow, will give the best cheddar flavour.
Yeast – you can use Active Dry Yeast or Instant Yeast for this bread.
Recipe Tips
- If you’ve ever gazed longingly at those super cheesy breads at the grocery store, then been stopped short by the price tag, you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank with this homemade version. You’ll use less than 1/2 of standard large block of cheese for these two loaves, so maybe $2.50 – $3 for cheese, tops – for two large loaves. With minimal other ingredients, it makes a lot of sense to bake your own, not to mention that you know exactly what’s in it!
- When it comes to cutting the dough into small pieces, don’t be too precise with it. Go all ninja on it and just cut haphazardly. It’s good to have a variety of sizes and shapes, to fill in the pan spaces best.
- Don’t be in too much of a rush to remove the bread from the oven. It will look fairly browned at the 30 minute mark, but it needs to cook a little longer (35-40 minutes). Cover loosely with a piece of foil to stop the browning, if needed.
- Don’t skimp on the greasing of the loaf pans. It will make your life easier when removing the cooked bread later. I just use a generous spray of baking spray.
Love cheese bread? You might also like my Soft Cheese Bread recipe.
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Get the Recipe: Chunky Cheddar Cheese Bread
Ingredients
Bread:
- 1 1/2 cups warm water, about 105° F.
- 2 Tablespoons instant or active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 5-6 cups all-purpose flour
Filling:
- 2 cups cheddar cheese , shredded and somewhat packed
- 2 cups cubed cheddar cheese , cubed into 1/2 inch chunks
Topping:
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or melted butter
- Pinch of garlic salt and/or sprinkling of dried herb or spice mix
- Sesame seeds
Instructions
- Generously grease two 8x4-inch or 9x5-inch loaf pans and set aside.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a kneading hook, combine warm water and yeast. Stir and let stand 2-3 minutes, until foamy. Add the sugar, salt, mustard, eggs, oil, butter and 3 cups of the flour. Mix together until combined. Begin adding more of the flour, in small increments (1/2 cup at first, then 1/4 cup, then tablespoons), until you have a moist, smooth and elastic dough. Remove dough to a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until doubled, about 30-60 minutes.
- Remove risen dough to a floured surface. Divide into two equal pieces. Roll one piece of the dough into a rectangle about 10x16-inches. Scatter one half of the shredded cheese evenly over top of the dough. Starting with the long side, roll the dough up jelly-roll style. Using a sharp knife, cut down the middle of each roll lengthwise. Then, using the knife, cut the two long pieces into smaller irregular pieces, about 1-inch-ish. Scatter about half the dough pieces onto the bottom of one of the prepared loaf pans. Scatter with 1/4 of the cheese cubes. Top with the rest of the dough pieces and then another 1/4 of the cheese cubes. Set aside and repeat this process with the same process with second dough piece, filling up the second loaf pan. Don't worry if it looks sparse. It will rise and all cook together wonderfully.
- When both loaf pans are filled, drizzle with melted butter, dividing it between the two loaves. Sprinkle with a pinch of garlic salt (or dried herb blenand some sesame seeds. Cover with greased plastic wrap and set to rise 30-45 minutes, or until puffy.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (regular bake setting/not fan assisted) Place loaf pan on a baking sheet (to catch any bubble-overand bake until well browned, 35-40 minutes. Check at 30 minutes. If top is brown enough, cover loosely with aluminum foil to stop additional browning and continue baking.
- Allow to cool in pans for about 20 minutes, then run a knife around the outside and remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. These freeze well!
Notes
More Cheese Bread Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
This was incredible, thank you for the recipe.
Glad you enjoyed it, Eddy :) Thanks so much!
This is fantastic! Turns out just like the photo, and tastes amazing. This is going to be a new staple here.
So glad to hear, Jen :) Thanks so much!
Made this this am,turned out amazing!
Glad to hear, Jocelyn :) Thanks!
I made this recipe a while ago and it was DELICIOUS!! I was wondering though, would I be able to keep the same recipe and make rolls instead of a loaf? My rolls recipe is very similar to this one..
Hi Cinthia and sure, you can just portion the dough into roll-size and bake off as you like. Obviously, baking time will be much less :)
Amazing! I just tried making this today. My first foray into making bread. It was so good. I will try your other recipes next.
So glad you enjoyed it, Erin :) Thanks!
I made this bread a few months back. It was FANTASTIC!
I improvised a little and added some pickled jalapeños to one of the leaves to see how that turned out.
I must say it was AWESOME!
Loved this recipe!
Thank you for sharing it!
Thanks Lisa! So glad you enjoyed it :)
I’m so very glad I stumbled across this website. So far I have tried both the cheese bread and the pizza buns – both of which are a huge hit in our house. I’m also eager to try the chicken with mustard sauce that you recently posted – it looks very, very good. It’s so nice to have another Canadian out there to follow and enjoy.
Thanks so much, Debbie and so glad you’re cooking along! Love having fellow Canadian readers :)
Brilliant recipe. Not my first cheese bread, but I will definitely be bookmarking this page. (until I have it memorized).
Thanks Hamish and so glad you enjoyed it!
You say half standard block of cheese, is that half of 350 grams or half a pound. To me 1 cup = 8 ounces so does this take 1 lb. if cheese , very confused here.
Hi Helen, just go with what is specified in the actual recipes, which give the cheese amounts in cups (1 cup = 4oz by weight). Hope that helps :)
I would really like to try this recipe. Is it possible to leave the dough in the pan to let it rise overnight to bake fresh in the morning?
Hi Josephine, I haven’t tried it, but I suspect it might work. If you try it, let me know if it works!
The first time I made this, I oiled pans a lot and couldn’t get bread out. I had to cut bread in the pan and try to get it out. Knowing this and how good this recipe is, I made again but this time I oiled pan and lined the pan on bottom and all four sides with parchment – oiled again. It came out with no effort. Still delicious.
So glad you enjoyed this Kathy! I’ve never had an issue getting this one out of the pan, but love your idea of parchment. I use it often when I don’t want to fight with getting things out of pans :)
Hi I just tried tonight our dinner for this bread.
I was confusing about recipe like….
“Using a sharp knife, cut down the middle of each roll lengthwise. Then, using the knife, cut the two long pieces into smaller irregular pieces, about 1-inch-ish. Scatter about half the dough pieces onto the bottom of one of the prepared loaf pans.”
Cut down the mddle of each roll. …..it does means ,all the way to cut ??? or what ………or stop top and bottom of dough to cut ?
Anyways, I just cutting for 1 inch dough and dump in to the bottom of the pan. Whatever I take , right ?
Then, cheese and whatever dough left on it and layered.
It was came very good !
I think I worried too much and want to follow detail with recipe but I think I better believing myself to doing !
Thank you and taste are excellent as usual your recipe !!
Hi Yuri, it meant cutting all the way through, making two separate pieces, then cutting each in to 1-inch pieces etc. So glad to hear you enjoyed this one!
Yep ! That’s what I was figure it out . Thank you. By the way, I was cooking “Creamy Asparagus Mini Potato Chicken” last night . That was excellent recipe , too !! You are awesome !
So glad you liked the chicken, too :) Thanks!
Turned out looking just like the picture and it tastes great, but be sure to place a cookie sheet under the loaves as they cook. As mine rose up, butter and cheese dripped into the oven and I had quite the smoke show!
So glad you enjoyed it, but sorry about the smoke show. I’ve had a few of those over the years ;) I’ve updated the recipe to suggest baking on a baking sheet, so no one else has that problem. Thanks for the heads up on that!
hi! i am just about to make your delicious recipe! however there is a discrepancy in your recipe- the yeast you said calls for 2 TABLESPOONS, however the 9 grams indicate 2 teaspoons. I am hoping that you meant teaspoon because I only bought enough for 2 teaspoons! hopefully it will come out alright :)
Hi Flora, It is definitely 2 TABLESPOONS. I converted the recipe to grams by measuring then weighing and 9 grams is what I wrote down for the 2 Tablespoons of instant yeast. That may be incorrect. I will double-check it, but 2 Tbsp. is correct.
Hi Jennifer! Your breads look so professional and artisinal!
I’m vegetarian and don’t eat eggs. Do you suppose this bread could be made without eggs or using flax eggs instead?
Thank you!
Hi Bella. I have no experience with flax eggs and bread. It may work, but I can’t say for sure. I can say for sure that you can just leave out the eggs. The bread will be a little less rich, but still very nice :)
Thank you Jennifer, much appreciated!! Can’t wait to bake this! :)
You’re welcome. Enjoy!