Jalapeño Cheddar Rolls

As a kid, one of my favorite snacks after a long day at school, was a piece of Jalapeno cheese bread from the supermarket. It was a free-form loaf covered in a crusty lava flow of caramelized cheddar, studded with slices of pickled jalapenos. I relished the way one bite would be an explosion of nutty caramelized cheddar, while the next bite might light my mouth on fire with a rush of capsaicin and vinegar. Beneath the crust, the tender bread hid pockets of cheddar that made eating a piece a bit like mining for gold.

The other day I was craving this childhood favorite, but given how much pickled jalapenos cost here, I decided to do a more elegant take on the rustic loaves I grew up on. This is essentially a brioche-based cinnamon roll with the cheese and jalapenos substituted in for the cinnamon and sugar. Rolled up, sliced and stuffed into a brownie pan, the dough erupts into towering rolls of buttery bread layered with cheese and jalapenos.

By rolling the dough fairly thin before you roll it, the cheese creates a kind of laminated dough, with layers of flaky buttery bread and cheese. To ensure I get a pocket of cheese in every roll, I add a bit of extra cheese in the center of the roll, which melts into a reservoir of gooey cheddar in the center.

I figured these would turn out pretty good (I mean how can you go wrong by layering brioche with lots of cheese?), but to call these pretty good would be a bit like calling the sun warm, or Donald Trump self-assured. If the insanely hunger inducing aroma of baking bread, butter and caramelizing cheese aren’t enough to entice you while they bake, then you’ll certain be sold when you pull one of the rolls apart from the rest, crackling as the crisp cheddar encrusted exterior gives way to a flaky, buttery interior with swirls of melted cheese and peppered with slices of jalapeno.