Recipe: Acme Cheese Wheels

Acme Cheese Wheels

These are “Acme” Cheese Wheels in the dictionary sense, as in “ultimate” or “peak”. But they’re also very close to the cheese wheels served by Acme Bakery out of their Ferry Plaza shop in San Francisco. Makes a dozen individual rolls.

Ingredients:
250 g whole rye levain @100%*
450 g King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
300 g water
1 1/2 t salt or to taste
300 g (more or less) coarsely grated cheese**

Stretched dough with cheese on top

Method: mix levain and water; add flour and autolyse 30 minutes. Add salt (the amount will vary depending on the saltiness of your cheese) then stretch and fold or knead till you have moderate gluten development (remembering that rye flour doesn’t have gluten) then cover and allow to rise till you have a good amount of lift to the dough, 3-4 hours if your levain is in good shape.

Cheese wheel loaf, headed for the freezer

Stretch out the dough on a floured surface into a rectangle, as if making a pizza, then sprinkle the cheese over covering the entire surface evenly. Roll it up from one end then wrap in plastic wrap and place in freezer till firm but not frozen, about an hour. Slice into rounds using a serrated knife. Place the rounds on parchment paper or silicone pads on half sheet pans and allow to come up to room temperature and rise a bit, about 1 1/2 hours. Bake in a 425 degree oven till the cheese is melted and exposed bread surface is lightly browned, about 25 minutes. Best if served warm or reheated slightly in the microwave.

Unbaked cheese wheels, headed for the oven

*I used rye because I happened to be refreshing my starter, but Tartine’s 80/20 white/whole wheat starter would probably work as well.
**I used 8 oz cheap “Swiss” cheese because I was inspired by the current King Arthur bake along, and 2 oz sharp cheddar. Next time I’d use more cheddar or other sharp cheese and maybe some mozzarella.