Easy Cheese Bread (Tutmanik)

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Have you ever heard of Tutmanik? This is a fluffy cheese bread popular in Bulgaria, most often served for breakfast. While it can be made in different varieties but this particular recipe is among the easiest and tastiest cheese breads you can make at home from scratch!

About the recipe

Tutmanik is a Bulgarian cheese bread made with, yogurt and eggs and with the local white cheese Sirene (very similar to Feta). It is fluffy and satisfying: the perfect warm and delicious breakfast for lazy weekends.

This version of Tutmanik is quite easy and requires very little kneading of the dough. Other more complicated versions require the dough to be rolled multiple times but with this one you will make a delicious cheese bread without much efforts.

What ingredients you need

For this "lazy" Tutmanik recipe you would need: all-purpose flour, yeast, milk, yogurt, salt, a bit of sugar, eggs, oil and butter and, of course, cheese. If you don't have Bulgarian style-cheese, this recipe would be still perfect with feta, ricotta or cottage cheese.

You will find the complete ingredient list below the post, in the recipe card!

Preparation summary

You can make the dough by hand, just with a wooden spoon, or use a stand mixer: both ways are fine.

After preparing the dough and letting it raise, you simply need to make several balls out of it with greased hands, then to mix each one with cheese and to arrange them closely on the baking pan. The very important moment here is that your hands must be greased well with melted butter as the dough would be very soft and sticky.

When the balls are arranged on the pan, the only thing left is to wait 30 more minutes for the dough to raise a bit more and then to bake the Tutmanik. Oh, and of course, before that you need to spread on top any remaining butter and cheese, mixed with an egg. That's how you create the yummy crust.

If you like breads with white cheese, you will certainly love this recipe! It is normally made with Bulgarian white cheese, which is similar to feta, but you can also prepare it with feta, cottage, ricotta or any other cheese which can be easily broken into small chunks.

If you want to see more recipes of savoury bakes, check also my fluffy Ham and Cheese Bread Rolls and the delicious Cheese and Olive Breads.

Or you may like the sweet Easter Bread recipe or the Cinnamon Walnut Star Bread.

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4.50 from 4 votes

Easy Cheese Bread (Tutmanik)

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Resting time 2 hours hrs

Ingredients

Metric - US Customary

• ▢ ½ cup/ 100 ml milk, warm
• ▢ 1 pack/ 7 g active dry yeast
• ▢ 1 teaspoon sugar
• ▢ 3 eggs
• ▢ ⅞ cup/200 g plain yogurt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt, + 1 if the cheese is not salty
• ▢ 3 tbs vegetable oil
• ▢ 4 cups/500 g all purpose flour
• ▢ 1/½ cup/ 250 g feta cheese, or cottage, ricotta and similar
• ▢ ⅓ cup/ 70 g butter, melted

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Instructions

• In a cup combine warm milk, sugar and yeast. Stir and cover with tea towel or kitchen paper. Let stay for for 5-10 minutes until foamy.
• In a large bowl beat 2 eggs shortly. Add the yeast mixture, yogurt, 1 teaspoon salt and oil and whisk until combined. Gradually add the flour, mixing gently with a wooden spoon/ hand or with the dough attachment of the mixer at a low speed, until the whole quantity is absorbed.
• Make a soft dough and leave it in the bowl. Cover the bowl with tea towels and leave it in a warm place for 1,5 h or until it doubles its size.
• Line the bottom of a rectangular baking pan (approximately 7 x 11 inch or 19x29 cm) with a sheet of parchment paper.
• Break the cheese into crumbs (if needed). If it is not salty, add ½ - 1 teaspoon salt and stir.
• Grease your hands with the melted butter and start taking small pieces out of the dough. Extend one piece in your hands and put some cheese on top. Cover the cheese by folding the dough and then knead the dough in your hands to distribute the cheese around it. Extend the dough again and place some more cheese on it. Distribute again the cheese into the dough. Shape the piece as a ball, grease it well and place it on the prepared pan.
• Repeat the process until using all the dough and until the pan is filled with tightly arranged dough balls. Set aside any leftover cheese and butter.
• Cover the pan with baking paper and then with tea towels. Leave the pan in a warm place for 30-60 minutes until the bread increases its size.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F/ 200 degrees C. Brush the bread with the third egg, lightly beaten.
• Bake for about 30 minutes covered with parchment paper. Remove the paper and bake uncovered for another 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
• Let cool for 10-15 minutes covered with tea towel before serving.

Notes

• Store the Tutmanik for about 2 days at room temperature covered with plastic wrap or aluminium foil. In the fridge it can last 1-2 more days but you need to reheat it.
• This bread also freezes very well, divided in portions in ziplock bags. Keep it for up to 3 months in the freezer.

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