Have you ever gotten a screaming urge to make some fancy and devilishly spicy and cheesy bread? Have you also found yourself in a situation where you didn’t have access to an oven or a bread maker?
If you have a rice cooker, look no further. The rice cooker is surprisingly multi-functional for a variety of recipes due to its ability to radiate heat from its surrounding circumference, but it is often overlooked as a contraption used only for making rice.
Hold on to your hats and get ready to amaze yourself with this little doohickey’s bread making capability and this asiago-cheese-bread-reminiscent recipe.
Prep Time: 15 minutes active + 2 hours rise time
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: ~4 hours
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon yeast
2 ½ cups flour
1 ½ tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons milk
½ cup water
2/3 cup jalapeños, chopped
½ cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Olive Oil
Photo by Abby Wang
Directions:
Adapted from Knifing Forking Spooning
1. Activate your dry yeast by putting yeast, a pinch of sugar and ¼ cup of warm water in a bowl and let it sit for at least 10 minutes. It should look bubbly and frothy on the surface once it’s ready for mixing use. (Side Note: If you have a small rice cooker, you might want to reduce the amount of yeast by 1/2 tsp. in the flour mixture.)
Photo by Jenny Park
2. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in another bowl while the yeast is activating. Mix the dry ingredients.
3. Add the milk and the yeast mixture to the flour mixture. Add the melted butter and mix all of the ingredients.
4. Put the jalapeños into the mix and knead for about 10 minutes to fully incorporate the butter and jalapeños into the dough.
Photo by Abby Wang
5. Shape the dough into a ball and place into a lightly oiled bowl that’s twice the size of the dough ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (make sure it’s lightly oiled to prevent the dough from sticking to the wrap). Let it rise for 1 hour in a 70-80ºF environment. (Fun fact: this step is called “proofing”)
Photo by Abby Wang
6. After it doubles in size, punch the dough down by pushing your fist into its center. Shape the dough into a ball again, then let it rise for another hour.
7. Oil the inner sides of the rice cooker and place the dough ball inside the rice cooker. Nuke it on the cook setting for 1 hour. Each rice cooker is a little different so if your rice cooker doesn’t have a timer option, make sure to re-press the cook option if it automatically switches over to the warm setting before the hour is up.
8. Flip the bread and sprinkle with cheddar cheese and cook for another 45-60 minutes or until the bread is browned on top.
9. Let cool and go nuts!
Photo by Abby Wang
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Photo by Abby Wang, Design by Grace Hwang
Some more hot (pun intended) DIY cheesy treats with lower maintenance: