Jalapeño Cheddar Sourdough: How We Build It

Jalapeño cheddar is the loaf people come back for, and it's also the fussiest one we make. Cheese and peppers both fight the dough, and if you add them at the wrong moment you get a flat, greasy loaf with a soggy middle.

The cheese goes in late, in cubes

Shredded cheese mixed in early disappears into the dough and coats the gluten strands with fat, which stops them building structure. We fold cubed sharp cheddar in during the last set of folds, so the pieces stay whole. Those cubes become the molten pockets you hit when you cut into it — and the bits that escape to the edge caramelise against the crust, which is arguably the best part.

Fresh jalapeños, deseeded, patted dry

Pickled jalapeños carry brine, and brine wrecks a sourdough crumb. Wet inclusions mean a gummy loaf no matter how well you baked it.

We use fresh peppers, deseeded so the heat stays in the background, and patted dry before they go anywhere near the dough. The goal is a warm hum behind the cheese, not a challenge.

It bakes darker on purpose

The extra sugars from the cheese and peppers push the crust darker faster, so this loaf comes out looking almost too baked next to a plain boule. That's deliberate. Pulling it earlier to keep it pale would leave the interior underdone right where the cheese is.

What to do with it

• Toasted thick, with butter and nothing else. Start here.
• As the bread for a grilled cheese — yes, more cheese. It works.
• Alongside chili or a bowl of soup, where the heat has something to lean on.

It goes on the board most weeks, and it tends to be the first thing to sell out.