Cheese Bread Twist With Ricotta By Renowned Pastry Chef Tracey Oshiro
Cheese Bread Twist With Ricotta
By Renowned Pastry Chef Tracey Oshiro
The Ricotta Cheese Bread Twist can be a nice addition to a charcuterie board or a complimentary side dish to your favorite soup or Cioppino Seafood Stew.
This versatile dough with ricotta cheese can a nice morning breakfast bread with the addition of a stone fruit such as peaches, plums, apples or apricots.
One of my favorite version is adding lemon zest and fresh thyme to the ricotta cheese and server the bread twist with a Gazpacho Andaluz
Ingredients for the Dough:
1 cup of warm whole milk
2 tablespoons of butter
2 eggs
3 teaspoon of active dry yeast
3 cups of flour
2 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of sea salt
Ingredients for the Ricotta Cheese Filling:
1 cup of fresh Ricotta Cheese
Optional additions:
For a sweet ricotta bread: 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and ¼ cup of sugar
For a savory ricotta bread for charcuterie board or soup: 1 tablespoon of Italian spice mix and 1 teaspoon of salt
For the lemon and thyme ricotta cheese bread twist: Zest of one lemon, teaspoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped thyme
Directions:
1. In a small saucepan, add milk and butter. Heat the milk to 110 degrees. Make sure the milk is not over 110 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl with paddle attachment, add the warm milk and butter for saucepan, 1 ½ cups of flour, yeast and sugar. Mix on medium low speed for about 30 seconds and scape the side of bowl to insure the flour in the mix. It should look like a cake batter. Add the two eggs and continue to mix for about another minute.
3. Replace the paddle attachment with dough hook on mixer, add the remaining flour and salt to the batter. Mixed for about 6 minutes. Add more flour if need to form a dough ball.
4. Take the dough out of the mixing bowl and knead the dough for about another 5 minutes until the dough is smooth.
5. In a medium size bowl, coat the bowl with olive oil and place dough in the bowl. Turn the dough over to coat the dough with the olive oil that is in the bowl. Cover bowl with a tea towel or plastic wrap.
6. Allow the dough to double in size for about 1 hour or longer.
7. Once the dough is double in size, take the dough out of the bowl on the dry smooth surface such as counter top or cutter board. With a rolling pin, roll dough out to a about a 12” by 12” square.
8. On the top half of the square, spread the ricotta cheese mixture.
9. Fold the bottom half dough over the ricotta cheese mixture and press lightly.
10. With a pizza cutter or knife, cut 1” by 6 “rectangle, place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Twist the dough.
11. Allow dough to rest and rise on counter for about an hour. The dough should double in size.
12. Preheat oven to 415 degrees.
13. Bake the bread for about 12-15 minutes until its golden brown.
14. Serve the bread warm or place on cooling rack to cool.
Tracey Oshiro is a Pastry Chef Instructor at the Le Gourmet Culinary in Orange, Ca. She specializes in french macaron. Her passion is to learn new cooking techniques across the globe.
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