Cheese, Herb & Garlic Quick Bread (No Yeast)

 This is a bread loaf that, true to its name, is quick to make because there’s no yeast, no kneading, no rising. It’s a Cheese, Herb and Garlic Quick Bread with swirls of herbs and ribbons of melted cheese. Excellent for afternoon tea or dipping into soups!

A terrific no yeast bread recipe

This is one of those recipes that isn’t actually a bread in the traditional sense, it’s a muffin batter baked in a loaf pan. So it doesn’t have that chew you get with proper yeast bread, but it’s irresistible in its own right, with a soft fluffy crumb loaded with garlicky, herby goodness and cheesy ribbons running through every slice.

But the best part is possibly that you’re already eating it while all those yeast-bread-making-people are still waiting for their dough to rise! 😈

I first shared this in 2015, but over time I tweaked it – mainly because the original recipe called for buttermilk which is not a fridge staple for me, and also to make the crumb softer and last longer. I’ve been enjoying this better version for a while… time to fess up and share!

Ingredients

Here’s what you need to make this:

Flavourings – cheese, herb and garlic

The cheese is cut into strips to bury in the batter, while the herbs, garlic and oil are used to make a “pesto” like mixture that is dolloped and swirled throughout. (PS Yes, you can totally use homemade or store-bought pesto!)

• Cheese – I like to use cheddar, colby or tasty cheese (a type of cheddar popular here in Australia). However, you can use any melting cheese you want though I don’t recommend using mozzarella (flavour and salt too mild) or hard cheeses like parmesan, pecorino (too salty).

• Fresh herbs – I love the combination of rosemary for earthy, herby flavour (and also because I have abundant supplies from the garden) and parsley for fresh green flavour. Rosemary is quite strong and for this loaf, I feel like using more than 2 tablespoons is too much.

  Feel free to experiment with combinations you like! I originally used equal amounts of dill, thyme, rosemary and parsley, because I had remnants of these at the time.

• Dried herbs – The ever reliable, always-on-hand combination of thyme and oregano! I used to just use fresh herbs but grew to prefer using both fresh and dried herbs in this particular loaf, for a mix of fresh and earthy herb flavour.

• Garlic – Fresh, crushed with a garlic crusher or grated, so the flavour infuses better into the oil than finely chopping with a knife.

• Olive oil – To bring the herb and garlic mixture together.

• Salt – Brings out the flavours of the herbs.

Batter

The ingredients of this no yeast bread are similar to a muffin, but I altered the recipe to make it less crumbly, making it suitable to slice and even to toast. Here’s what you need.

• Yogurt – A bakers’ trick to make crumbs moist and stay fresher for longer (this stays fresh in the pantry for 5 days!). Use any plain, unsweetened yogurt – regular or Greek – preferably full fat. Low fat does work but the crumb is a bit less plush.

• Milk – Regular cow milk, full fat recommended though low fat can be used. (The yogurt plus milk essentially replaces the buttermilk that was in the original recipe).

• Flour – plain / all purpose flour.

• Baking soda / bi-carbonate – The leavening agent that makes this loaf rise. It’s stronger than baking power and makes this loaf rise better with a softer crumb. However, if you’re out, you can substitute with 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder.

• Eggs – Make sure you use large eggs which are 50-55g / 2oz each in the shell, sold in cartons labelled “large eggs”. If you only have jumbo or XL eggs, see this post for how to measure out the correct amount.

• Butter and oil – The fat in this loaf. I use a combination because butter adds better flavour than oil, but oil makes the crumb of the loaf more moist, and keeps it fresher for longer.

• Garlic – With garlic in both the herb garlic mix AND in the batter, there’s unmissable garlic flavour here!

• Salt – Brings out the flavour in everything.

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How to make Cheese and Garlic Quick Bread

I like to wedge chunks of cheese in the batter and swirl through herb and garlic oil so you get lovely pockets of cheese and streaks of herby colour, and the lovely textured crust on top. But you could just mix the herb mixture and shredded cheese through the batter – even faster to prepare!!

1. Herb garlic mixture – Just put everything into a bowl and mix together. It should be dollop-able, so if it’s a little on the dry side just add a smidge more oil.

   💡TIP: Instead of finely chopping the herbs with a knife, you can blitz it up with a stick blender. It makes it a bit finer and pesto-like so it is not quite as green once baked, but it works perfectly and is faster to make! Directions in recipe card notes.

2. Dry ingredients – Whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl.

3. Wet ingredients – Whisk the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.

4. Combine wet and dry – Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour the wet ingredients in and mix just until you can no longer see any flour. The batter will look a little lumpy and that’s totally fine. Don’t keep mixing to try to make it smooth – the lumps bake out and overtaxing makes your loaf crumb less soft.

5. Cheese, herb and garlic – I like to do the herb and garlic swirls and cheese ribbons in 3 layers, using a 21 x 11 x 7 cm pan (8.3 x 4.5 x 2.75″) which makes a nice tall loaf.

   Spread 1/3 of the batter in the loaf tin. Dollop 1/3 of the herb garlic mixture over and randomly push in and drag the knife through – there are no rules or art about this. You could just spread the mixture across the surface. Then wedge the cheese slices in, upright, like pictured above, sticking out is fine.

   Then repeat this twice more. It’s fine for the cheese to be sticking out the top – makes the surface golden and cheese crusted!

6. Bake 30 minutes uncovered at 180°C/350°F (both fan-forced and standard ovens).

   If you’re wondering why the temperature is the same for both types of ovens, because you’re used to seeing the fan oven temp 20°C lower – good question! Please see FAQ – too lengthy to explain there. 🙂

7. Bake covered 20 minutes – Remove from the oven and loosely cover with foil. Then bake for a further 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

8. Cool 5 minutes in the loaf tin then at least 10 minutes on a rack before slicing (it’s very fragile when hot, straight out of the oven).

Butter isn’t needed.

But it’s always welcome.

Serve this for afternoon tea, take it to picnics, as a side for meals. It’s also fantastic for dipping into soups and slow cooked stews!