Last week, I made the first recipe in the Baker’s Companion that I didn’t particularly like. It wasn’t bad; it just didn’t tickle my fancy. Most everything else I’ve made so far, even things that didn’t turn out quite right, I would happily make and eat again. This? I might have to make some changes next time.

The cheddar rosemary bread has two batters. (I bet you can guess the flavor of each.) They are nearly identical in base ingredients, except that the rosemary batter uses whole wheat flour and softened butter, and the cheddar all-purpose flour and melted butter.

The book version of the recipe has you place the rosemary batter into the bottom of a 9×5″ pan. Then the cheddar batter is poured on top, and they’re swirled together. After baking, I saw the swirl didn’t work out so great–I thought next time I would maybe alternately dollop in the batters to get a better effect. I found them a bit too thick to swirl easily. Then I saw the instructions for the online version of the recipe have you do exactly that. I’m glad it wasn’t just me who had difficulty.

This was all right warm from the oven with butter, but with the batter separation, the wheat portion of the bread turned out a bit too wheat-y. I also think I liked it less because I’m used to the texture and flavor of sweet quick breads, and I missed the tenderness of bread-that’s-really-dessert.

If you like cheddar and rosemary, though–and I certainly do–you might try the updated version of the recipe and see how it goes. Have you made either recipe before?