Vintage Recipe Classic: Parmesan Casserole Bread

When I'm out thrift shopping, I can never resist a good bargain on a vintage cookbook. At only 50 cents, a mint-condition copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Bread Book (1963) that I found at my local St. Vincent DePaul's thrift store was one heck of a bargain. In it, I found a now-treasured recipe for Parmesan Casserole Bread.

This bread is amazingly good. It's quick and easy - instead of a the endless knead/rise cycle that so many bread recipes require, Parmesan Casserole Bread takes only a little over an hour from beginning to end and doesn't need kneading. The final result is so delicious and, well, bread-like, for lack of a better way to describe it, you won't feel like you cheated and made bread the easy way.

Parmesan Casserole Bread
Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast or 1 cake compressed yeast
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup milk, scalded
1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Soften active dry yeast in warm water or compressed yeast in lukewarm water. Cool milk to lukewarm. Meanwhile sift flour, sugar, and salt into mixing bowl. With pastry blender or pastry fork cut in butter till mixture resembles coarse meal. Add egg, softened yeast and milk; beat well. Stir in the cheese and parsley.

Turn into greased 8x1-1/2 inch round pan. Cover with damp cloth and let rise till double, about 40 minutes. Dot with more butter. Bake in moderate oven (375 degrees) 20 to 25 minutes. Cut in pie-shaped wedges.

This savory, buttery, cheesy bread goes great with soups, stews, or salads, and since it only cooks for 25 minutes tops, you can make it as easily on a hot summer afternoon as you can in the cold of winter. Wrap any leftovers tightly (if you have any, that is) and they taste just as wonderful when reheated in the oven for a few minutes the following day.