Blog

There is nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked bread. Actually, we lie. Eating freshly baked bread probably tops the smell, but both are heavenly. This home-baked bread is a Makweti favourite, made with a local ingredient that South African kids grow up on: Marmite. Add loads of cheese and you have a recipe for a dreamy snack or the perfect accompaniment for a meal. 

Make it at home and let us know what you think of the finished product.

Ingredients

• 175ml full cream milk
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 100g butter, plus extra for greasing
• 4 tsp Marmite or Bovril
• 500g strong white bread flour
• 1 x 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
• 4 medium eggs, beaten
• 250g mature cheddar, grated coarsely
• Black pepper

Method

• Warm the milk in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, butter and 2 teaspoons of Marmite, until the butter has melted. Cool to lukewarm
• Sift the flour and ½ teaspoon salt into a large bowl, stir in the yeast and make a well in the centre
• Pour the beaten eggs and milk mixture into the well and mix quickly to a soft dough
• Knead for 10-15 minutes by hand or 5-7 minutes in a food mixer with a dough hook on a low speed, until elastic. The dough should be very soft and quite sticky
• Place the dough in a lightly-oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size. This should take about 1½ hours

• For a richer flavour and easier to handle dough, allow the dough to rise overnight in the fridge, after an initial 45 minutes of rising time at room temperature
• You’ll need to bring it back to room temperature for at least an hour before proceeding
• Knock the dough back and sprinkle over half of the grated cheddar, season well with black pepper and knead for a minute or so until smooth and the cheese is well dispersed
• Break the dough into 19 equally-sized pieces (about 50g each), pinch the edges of each piece together together and roll to create a smooth ball
• Lightly brush a 25-26cm springform cake tin with a little melted butter and arrange the balls of dough in concentric circles around the tin. If you don’t have a tin of this size, arrange the dough balls in a 26cm circle drawn on baking paper, on a baking tray
• Sprinkle half of the remaining cheese in the crevices between the balls of dough, taking care not to sprinkle any on top, and set aside to prove for 1½-2 hours, until the dough is well-risen and feels soft and pillowy
• Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6
• Bake the bread for 30 minutes, then remove from the oven
• Mix the remaining Marmite with 2 teaspoons of just-boiled water and brush the mixture over the bread to glaze
• Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and return to the oven for 10 minutes or until the bread is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean
• Serve warm to enjoy the melty ooziness of the cheese