Baked Cream Cheese Cob Loaf

Super retro but super delicious – this is a recipe I remember from childhood parties and is well overdue for a major comeback. Serves 10–12

Ingredients

• 500g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 x 400g jar sweetcorn relish
• 250g sour cream
• 3–4 tbsp red pepper relish
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (e.g. chives, parsley)
• 2 large cob or Vienna bread loaves

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. 

In a large bowl, mix cream cheese, sweetcorn relish, sour cream, red pepper relish and herbs until there are no large lumps of cream cheese. 

Take 1 loaf of bread and cut a circle out of the top. Pull all the bread out of the inside of the loaf to make a hollowed-out bread bowl.

Spoon filling into hollowed-out loaf then replace the top. Wrap loaf in tin foil making sure it is fully covered and place on prepared tray.

Bake for 30–40 minutes or until filling is warm in the centre (use a spoon to test it). 

While loaf is baking, cut the bread you pulled out of the first loaf and the second loaf into large cubes.

Remove loaf from oven and scatter cubed bread around it. Open the tin foil so the top of the filled loaf can crisp up, then return the tray to the oven for another 10 minutes. Serve warm using the bread cubes to scoop the filling up. Best eaten the same day.