Party Loaf

Rebecca Fri, May 04 2012

Hello my fellow bakers. Let's strap on our aprons for this awesome Party Loaf. This is a great appetizer dish for your upcoming parties and gatherings. When my family sampled and then devoured this loaf; my son requested this for his upcoming birthday celebration.

This is a really simple and delicious recipe. You will need the following ingredients:

Party Loaf

1 Loaf Rhodes Bread Dough, thawed but still cold

slices of your favorite cheese
cooked bacon

non-stick cooking spray

favorite dip (optional)

Thaw out one loaf of Rhodes frozen bread dough. (I used a white bread loaf, although Rhodes has a 100% whole wheat available.) Place loaf into a zippered gallon sized plastic bag and set out on counter to thaw. You can also place in the refrigerator to thaw overnight. Your dough should be thawed but still cold to the touch. Roll loaf into a 20-22-inch rope. Spray bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray. Form dough into a circle and place in the bottom of a sprayed bundt pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Slice cheese and cook bacon. I used about 8 slices of cheese and 8 slices of bacon

I made 3 bundt loaves. I wanted to see what kind of bundt pan I liked the most. I used the traditonal shaped 12 cup pan, a traditional 10 cup pan, and a narrow and tall decorative 10 cup pan. I liked the traditional 12 cup pan the best. I think that anything you have in the kitchen will work great.

Remove wrap and bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Use a plastic knife to loosen the bread from the edges of the pan. Invert pan and remove the loaf from the pan. Place on a cooling rack until completely cool.

After the loaf has cooled, make cuts lengthwise and then turn the loaf and make cuts widthwise. While making your cuts make sure you do not cut all the way through to the bottom of the crust. This will create squares on the top of the loaf. This sounds complicated but once you start slicing the loaf it will make sense.

Place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non stick cooking spray.

Insert cheese slices & bacon pieces between the cuts. Break up the slices of cheese to fit into cuts. ( I tried this with shredded cheese. I found the cheese pooled in the bottom of the loaf after it was melted. Slices of cheese work better.) I preferred a mixture of pepper jack and sharp cheddar cheeses. When baking with cheese, the cheese will lose some of its flavor during the baking process. A strong cheese holds its flavor better. Cut bacon into inch size pieces, then evenly distribute throughout the cut pieces of the bundt.

Return to oven and bake an additional 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Some of my cut pieces on the edge didn't want to stay together. I had made my cuts too close to the edge of the loaf and they didn't have a good foundation to keep their shape. I took glass pyrex measuring cups and used them to prop the loaf together. This worked great. Once the cheese melted the loaf held together really well.

Serve with your favorite dip in the middle, if desired.

My family and friends loved this party loaf. I served this with an artichoke jalapeño dip. You can play with this recipe and make it your own family favorite. What a fun and beautiful twist on a party appetizer. Make your bundts ahead of time then finish up with cheese and bacon just before your party. Let's hang up our aprons until we cook again!

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Rebecca

Rebecca is the mother of five children ranging in age from 5 to just shy of 16. Four girls and one boy make up the group. This is her first thought of who she is right now because it takes up the majority of her time. Between taking kids to swim practice, swim meets, ballet lessons, acting class volunteering at the school ..... Need she go on? She has been working at Rhodes for 2 1/2 years helping with in-store demos and classes at corporate headquarters on a part time basis. She has loved working for Rhodes and feeling like an individual again. Cooking is a love of hers and she just likes to eat food in general. She has interests in photography, gardening, jewlery making, and loves a good book. Her new love is yoga and swimming and she's currently taking a little more time for herself with her youngest in now in kindergarten! Yah!

Posted by Recipe of the Week, Rhodes People, Featured Recipe, Rebecca

2 Comments

Diane said on May 04, 2012 Reply

This looks delicious and I'd like to make it, but I'm not understanding something. I get that you've formed the dough into a rope, placed it into the bundt pan and let it rise. Then what do you do with the meat and cheese? It looks like it's enclosed in the loaf, but I'm not sure how.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Diane

Diane said on May 04, 2012 Reply

Oh, never mind. Duh! You inserted it after you baked. So sorry! I stared at that picture of the baked loaf and maybe just assumed it was already in there.

Diane