When the weather starts cooling down and Fall starts knocking on the door, it turns into Green Chile season here in New Mexico. Anywhere you go you get whiffs of green chile roasting. It’s one of my favorite times of year here. I bought about 5 pounds of freshly roasted Hatch green chile this year for stews, burgers and bread. Green chile and cheddar is a great combination but I substituted smoked gouda instead of cheddar in this loaf. This might be the best smelling and tasting loaf of bread I’ve ever made.

Schedule: I based this loaf off of my bakers yeast schedule.

Ingredients:

Dough

• 500g bread flour
• 390g filtered water @ 92’F
• 11g sea salt
• 2g bakers yeast
• 85g chopped 2020 Hatch medium-hot green chile
• 85g diced smoked gouda
• for top – 85g shredded cheddar
• for top – 35g chopped green chile

Method:

I started with a 30 minute autolyse with the flour and water.

After mixing the salt and yeast into the dough, I performed 4 stretch and folds within the first 90 minutes, separated by 20 minutes. I added the green chile and smoked gouda during the first stretch and fold. The kitchen was hovering around 70’F so I went with nearly a full 5 hour bulk fermentation.

I proofed for 60 minutes in a banneton before placing it in a dutch oven.

I baked the loaf in a preheated dutch oven at 450’F for 20 minutes covered, then removed the lid of the dutch oven and baked for an additional 30 minutes. I added the topping portion of the green chile and shredded cheddar when I removed the lid of the dutch oven.

Result:

As I mentioned earlier, this is probably one of the best loaves I’ve made. The smokiness from the gouda and the roasted green chile combined extremely well. The rise was perfect and I was extremely happy with the crust.

If I had to nitpick on anything, I would probably wait 10 minutes after uncovering the loaf before adding the additional cheddar and green chile. It ended up slightly darker than I would have preferred but it didn’t burn or affect the flavor at all.

Depending on your heat tolerance, you might want to go with a mild or medium heat level of green chile. I love spicy food and this year’s medium-hot green chile definitely leans more ‘hot’ than ‘medium’.

For me, the amount of green chile and smoked gouda was perfect. Any more and I feel like it would start affecting the crumb and rise in the bread.

My Baking Notes

• Ambient Temperature: 70’F
• Started autolyse @ 6:45am
• Water temp: 92’F
• Dough was 89’F at autolyse
• Mixed @ 7:28am
• Dough was 79’F after mixing
• 4 stretch and folds over first 90 minutes
• Started proof @ 12:15pm
• Into oven @ 1:15pm