Festive Bread Wreath with Gruyere Cheese Dip
My rich and creamy Festive Bread Wreath with Gruyere Cheese Dip is the perfect centre piece for your Christmas gathering this year.
The flavours from the creamy gruyere cheese and nutty artichoke hearts, when roasted into a bubbling molten dip are insane. Having a freshly baked bread, that’s soft and fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside, to tear and dunk is mind blowing!
Contents
Wine and Cheese Christmas Eve
Every Christmas Eve the Breakfast Club members gather round my cousin Jo’s house for the annual Wine and Cheese Christmas Eve. It’s become one of my favourite traditions. It doesn’t quite feel like Christmas until I’ve eaten my weight in cheese and played party games all night. We each bring the most interesting cheese we can find, this year I plan to bring the Festive Bread Wreath with Gruyere Cheese Dip. I know it will go down a treat, who can resist tearing off chunks of freshly baked bread and dipping it into melted cheese?
Make my Festive Bread Wreath with Gruyere Cheese Dip the highlight of your Christmas. Serve as the centre piece at your festive family parties, or when your friends pop round for a glass of wine to exchange presents.
Festive Bread Wreath with Gruyere Cheese Dip
Festive Bread Wreath with Gruyere Cheese Dip
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- Ovenproof dish
Ingredients
Gruyere Cheese Dip
- 130 g Gruyere Cheese, grated
- 130 g Creme fraise, reduced fat
- 20 g Mayonnaise, reduced fat
- 160 g Artichoke hearts (I used Tesco’s antipasti section in oil), drained and roughly chopped
- 30 g Baby spinach, finely shredded
- 15 g Curley kale, finely shredded
- 1 pinch Pepper
- 1 pinch Cayenne pepper
Festive Bread Wreath
- 500 g Strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
- 7 g Fast acting yeast
- 300 ml Tepid water
- 30 ml Olive oil, plus extra for rolling
- 10 g Runny honey
- 1 tsp Fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220C, 200 fan, Gas mark 6.
- Pop all the bread ingredients into the bowl of your stand mixer. Roughly mix the ingredients together with a spoon. Attach the dough hook and knead on a low speed for 5 minutes, until you have a soft, smooth and stretchy dough.
- Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
- When the dough is ready, tip it onto a lightly oiled surface. Knock the dough back by punching it flat.
- Cut the dough into three equal pieces. Use the palm of your hands to roll the dough into three uniform strips. The strips should be slightly longer than the circular dish you are using for the cheese dip.
- Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Lightly flour the baking paper and place a circular ovenproof dish in the centre. Plait the three strips of dough. Carefully lift the plaited dough and wrap around the dish. Cut off any overlapping dough and match up the two ends. You want a continuous circle of plaited dough. Don’t worry if the joint looks a bit messy, the dough will rise and fuse together.
- Cover the dough with an oiled piece of cling film. Place in a warm place for 30-40 minutes until it has doubled in size.
- Meanwhile mix 100g of the Gruyere Cheese with the rest of the cheese dip ingredients together in a bowl. Tip the cheese mixture into the oven proof dish and sprinkle with the remaining Gruyere cheese.
- When the dough has doubled in size lightly dust with flour. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the dough is golden and sounds hollow when tapped. Festive Bread Wreath with Gruyere Cheese Dip Is best served straight away.
My top tip to a successful, stress free Christmas is preparation. My light, fluffy and Crisp Make Ahead Christmas Roast Potatoes will save you time on the big day!
Have a wonderful Christmas and Fabulous New Year.
Lee 🥂
