Ingredients

3 cups bread flour (Note 1 re: plain/all-purpose flour)
2 tsp instant yeast aka rapid rise (Note 2)
1 1/2 tsp cooking/kosher salt
1 1/2 cups very warm tap water (Note 3)
2 1/2 cups (tightly packed) Colby cheese , freshly shredded (or other cheese of choice – Note 4)

Instructions

SHORTHAND RECIPE – for experts

Mix dry ingredients, mix in water. Rise 2 – 3 hrs until doubled.
Preheat pot 240°C/450°F (220°C fan). Turn dough out. Reserve 1/3 cheese for topping. Fold inwards 4 times, stuffed/layered with remaining cheese. Flip onto parchment paper. Pile reserved cheese on top.
Bake 35 minutes covered, 10 minutes uncovered. Rest 10 minutes. Eat!

FULL RECIPE
Magic no-knead dough:
Shaggy dough – Using a rubber spatula, mix flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add water, then mix using the handle of the spatula until you can no longer see flour. The dough should be too sticky to knead by hand, but not pourable like cake batter (see video at X seconds).
Rise – Cover with cling wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for 2 to 3 hours until the dough doubles in volume (Note 5). The surface should be bubbly, and the mixture should jiggle when you shake the bowl.
Preheat pot – Half an hour before the dough is ready, put a 24-28cm / 4.5-8 quart heavy based pot with a lid in the oven to preheat to 240°C/450°F (220°C fan-forced). Note 7 for no dutch oven method.
Shape loaf:
Pat into disc – Sprinkle work surface with 1 tbsp flour. Scrape dough out, sprinkle surface with flour, pat into a ~20cm/8″ disc.
Cheese it – Set aside 1/3 of the cheese for topping. Cover surface with half the remaining cheese.
Fold inwards stuffed with cheese – Using a dough scraper or anything of similar shape (cake server, large knife, spatula), fold the sides inwards 4 times to roughly form a roundish shape, topping each layer of with the remaining cheese (but keep the final layer cheese free, it will be the base of the bread). (Note 6 for tips)
Paper transfer – Flip the dough onto a sheet of parchment/baking paper so the seamside is (mostly) facedown. Tidy the shape if desired. (Note 6)
Cheese crown – Pile the reserved cheese on.
Bake
Hot pot transfer – Remove hot pot from the oven. Use paper to transfer dough into the pot, keeping it on the paper. Put lid on.
Bake 35 minutes. Remove lid. Bake 10 minutes to colour the surface.
Cool – Remove pot from oven. Use paper to transfer bread onto a cooling rack. Remove paper. Cool at least 10 minutes before slicing! (Note 8)

Notes

Read in post for more details on each point below.
1. Bread flour – more chewy result like your favourite (expensive!) artisan bakery bread. Plain/all-purpose flour works fine but not quite as chewy.
2. Instant yeast – Doesn’t need to be frothed in warm water, just mix straight into dry ingredients. Comes in canisters, labelled as “instant yeast”. Active dry yeast (ie normal yeast) – Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup of the warm water first (no need to let it foam). then mix in remaining water. Immediately add flour and salt, then mix. Proceed with recipe as written.
3. Water – Not boiling (kills yeast), not lukewarm (inhibits dough rising). Stick your finger in. Happy to bathe in it? Perfect temp! (If you want to be accurate, 35C/95F is a good target, but the acceptable range is fairly broad. This bread is forgiving!)
4. Cheese – Freshly grated is best because it melts better (store bought shredded = anti-caking agents = inhibits melting) and the strands are finer so it doesn’t weigh the bread down. However, in the event of an emergency, pre-shredded will work just fine, your bread will be springy and soft and have the same wicked crust. It just won’t rise quite as well as pictured.
Other cheeses – Any cheese (other than mozzarella) that melts well will work great here, like cheddar, tasty, Monterey Jack, gruyere. I like Colby for it’s melting qualities and it doesn’t weigh the bread down as it rises in the oven, and it’s not greasy (like Tasty cheese). Re: mozzarella – it will work fine but it doesn’t have enough flavour in it compared to other cheeses.
5. Warm place = ~25°C/77°F+. Warmer = faster rise. Avoid direct sunlight. Neat trick – your dryer! Run it (empty) for a few minutes. Put bowl in, shut door. Nice and warm inside = perfect draught free dough rising location!
6. Folding inwards – Dust the dough scraper with flour as needed. No need to worry about being meticulous here, we can reshape it later, this is more about deflating the dough and enclosing the cheese inside the dough.
Shaping dough – The dough expands so much in the oven and the pot defines the shape so there’s not much point shaping it. You don’t even need to tidy it that much. Just roughly shape it into a uniform round or oval.
7. No dutch oven method – use 20cm/8” square metal pan (NOT glass, may shatter). Place in oven on middle shelf where bread will bake (or shelf under if tray won’t fit on same shelf), preheat oven. Boil kettle. Place paper with shaped dough on a baking tray. When you put the bread in, work fast as follows – place bread in oven next to (or on the shelf above) the pan, fill pan with about 2cm/1″ boiling water, shut oven door = makeshift dutch oven steamer effect! Bake for 40 minutes until it’s a deep golden brown (if it gets too brown because of the cheese, cover loosely with foil).
8. Resting bread for at least 10 minutes before cutting is essential as it will finish cooking and dry the crumb out. If you slice before then, the dough will look raw (it’s not, but it will seem like it is).
9. Make-ahead – Overnight refrigeration of the Crusty Artisan Bread on which the Cheese Bread dough is based not only works 100% (re: rising) but the bread develops more flavour. As yet untested for cheese bread! Concerned the amount of cheese in this might affect the rising ability. Will update once tested.
10. Storage – The bread is at its prime freshly made, still great for 24 – 36 hours. After this, toast and slather with butter. So good, you will forever hope for leftover cheese bread!
Nutrition per slice, assuming 10 slices.

Nutrition
Calories: 273cal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 552mg | Potassium: 102mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 0.3g | Vitamin A: 329IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 234mg | Iron: 1mg