This week I made a fabulous bread - and it was so easy I've become addicted. This easy cheesy bread recipe is SO versatile you can use it for almost any flavour combination you can think of!

What I like about this cheese bread recipe is:

• It needs no yeast - you've probably already got all the ingredients!
• There's no kneading
• There's no rising
• You just need a bowl - no breadmaker
• If you start now, you'll be eating in in just ONE hour!
• It's versatile because you can swap in/out your favourite ingredients

For Vegetarians: Remember, if you cook this savoury bread recipe for a vegetarian, make sure the butter/margarine and the cheese are vegetarian too. Many brands will use animal rennet in their ingredients.

• 250 grams//8/8oz/2 cups of plain flour (all purpose flour)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 57grams/2oz butter or margarine
• 85grams/3oz/1 cup grated strong cheese (you can use leftover cheese if you want)
• 1-2 tablespoons of your favourite herbs (I used oregano the first time, but any herbs that go well with cheese such as chives or dill)
• ½ small onion, grated
• ¾ cup milk
• 1 medium egg

OK, so now to turning that list of storecupboard basics into a tasty loaf!

1. Pre-heat your oven to 175°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
2. Grease a 1 pound loaf tin - I made this in a standard loaf tin, but you can place it into any dish - if you use a shallow/wider dish then reduce cooking time.
3. Mix all your dry ingredients together in a bowl.
4. Cut up your butter and mix it into the dry ingredients - you can rub the butter in if you like - until it's unnoticeable.
5. Stir in your cheese, onion and herbs.
6. Mix thoroughly.
7. Mix the milk and egg together and pour into the flour mixture. Stir it all together.  
8. Pour the whole mix into your loaf tin.
9. Bake for 40-45 minutes in the middle of the oven, or until a knife comes out clean.
10. Remove your loaf from the oven and let it cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool (if you don't do this it might go soggy as the hot steam's trapped inside).

Well, I just cut the end off and ate some of it hot!  I actually ate the whole loaf on its own in the end.

However, for those of you who aren't as greedy as me, you might like to consider how to serve your cheese bread!

• Serve as a side dish to chilli con carne - hot or cold.
• Serve with soup.
• Take it on a picnic or to a barbecue with you.
• Use a slice as a base for a quick toasted pizza slice by toasting both sides lightly then topping one side with a tomato base/cheese/onions/peppers/mushrooms ... or any topping of your choice.
• Make a sausage sandwich.

This has to be the quickest and easiest tasty bread ever!

Enjoy!

The beauty of this recipe is you can play around and try different flavours, here are a few ideas to get you started, but just experiment and see what happens.

Bookmark this page and let me know what you tried and what went well!

Variations on Easy Peasy Cheese Bread

• Cheese and Garlic Bread - use garlic powder or 2-3 cloves of garlic crushed/chopped, you can even use 2 heaped teaspoons of chopped garlic from a jar!
• Cheese and Chilli Bread - use fresh chillies cut up small, or even mix in some chilli paste at the last minute. If you smear in small amounts of chilli paste at the last minute then you can even create a loaf that's yellow and red, making it more interesting to look at.  If you're using fresh chillies then why not create a line of them down the top of your loaf before baking.
• Cheese and Rosemary Bread - use 2 tablespoons of rosemary - put most of it in the mix, but how about holding back with a teaspoon of rosemary and simply spreading that over the top before you put your loaf in the oven.
• Cheese, Apple and Walnut Bread - use one small apple and ¼ cup of chopped walnuts to create a lovely, unusual bread.