Garlic and Cheese Country Bread (Garlic & Gruyère Pain de Campagne)

This Garlic Gruyere Pain de Campagne Boule is a big sourdough loaf with a swath of roasted garlic and cheese nestled right under the crust.

To achieve the pockets of garlic and cheese right under the crust, you flattened the final dough and spread it with the roasted garlic and cheese mixture, and then you roll it up into a boule. You then tighten the boule until much of the filling is just under the skin (outer crust) of the bread.

Then you decorate the boule with cilantro, parsley, or celery leaves and stuff whole garlic cloves into the center. It makes a pretty stunning presentation.... perfect for giving to a special neighbor or dinner hosts.

There is so much roasted garlic in this bread that your house will definitely be a no vampire zone.

The dough begins with a firm starter, which has a hydration level of about 50% (ratio of water to flour). My starter has a hydration level of 100%, but I was able to use it to create the firm starter for this bread with just one feeding.

I used to maintain three different starters with different hydrations, and then I realized I could just pull out a portion of my basic starter and just feed it based on the formula for the bread I was making. If you want to, you can start with a small amount and feed it twice over a couple of days to make sure you've got the right levain before mixing the final dough.

The Story of this Pain de Campagne Dough.

My bread geek friend David introduced me to this formula. He is a devotee of the Della Fattoria Cafe in Petaluma, California, where he lives. It's in the cafe's amazing cookbook by Kathleen Weber. The dough for this bread was developed years ago for Thomas Keller's The French Laundry restaurant in Yountville, California. How cool is that?

You can use the basic dough recipe and make it your own. In the cookbook, Kathleen demonstrates how the dough recipe can make either 2 batards, a large batard coated in pumpkin seeds, one large boule, an olive filled loaf, and this garlic and cheese bread.

Tips for making this garlic and cheese country bread.

The dough is silky smooth and very easy to work with. Making it involves using both a stand mixer and three subsequent stretches and folds. I made one big loaf, but you can divide the dough in half to make two loaves.

For the cheese, I used Gruyère, which is a great melty cheese. You can also substitute Asiago, Grana Padano, or Parmigiano-Reggiano.

I used flat-parsley for decorating the sides of the loaf. Of course, you can skip this step.. but it's pretty fun!

To get the cheese and garlic to move to just under the crust of the bread, after spreading it over the flattened dough and then forming a "purse" to enclose the garlic and cheese.

After that, you tighten the dough against the work surface with a bench knife until you begin to see the mixture just under the surface of the dough.

Rather than create steam in the oven, I baked the loaf on a baking stone under an upside down metal bowl for the first 25 minutes of baking. You can also bake the loaf in a preheated Dutch oven.

If you don't have a sourdough starter...

You can create a biga with 153 g of water, 270 g of all purpose flour, 30 g of whole wheat flour, and a pinch of instant yeast. Cover and let sit overnight, until it is quite puffy. Also, add about 1/4 tsp of yeast to the final dough.

This week, the Dinner Table group is making recipes loaded with garlic.

30 Minute Garlic Parmesan Rolls by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
Drunken Garlic Crock Pot Roast by Palatable Pastime
Garlic and Black Pepper Shrimp by A Day in the Life on the Farm
Garlic Bread Carbonara by Cheese Curd In Paradise
Garlic Mushrooms by Making Miracles
Grain Free Garlic Naan by Frugal & Fit
Peanut Garlic Tabouleh by Art of Natural Living
Roasted Garlic Hummus by That Recipe
Slow Cooker Tuscan Garlic Chicken by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures

We share Recipes From Our Dinner Table! Join our group and share your recipes, too! While you're at it, join our Pinterest board, too!

I originally posted this recipe in 2014 (see photo above). It was great to remake this bread and update this recipe. This is definitely a garlic forward recipe.

This Garlic Gruyere Pain de Campagne Boule is a big sourdough loaf with a swath of roasted garlic and cheese nestled right under the crust.

This bread freezes well. Wrap it in foil, and then plastic freezer wrap. Freeze up to two weeks. To thaw, remove the plastic wrap but leave it in the foil. Thaw at room temperature.