Bacon-Cheddar-Chive Party Bread

Weigh your all-purpose flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Combine the flour with the remaining ingredients and mix to form a shaggy dough., Knead the dough — by hand, mixer, or bread machine set to the dough cycle — until it forms a smooth, somewhat tacky ball, adding more flour or water if necessary., Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes, until it's puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk., Lightly grease a 10-cup Party Bundt Pan or other tube-style pan., Gently deflate the dough and form it into a large ball. Use your fingers to pierce a hole through the center of the ball and place the resulting dough ring into the prepared pan., Cover the pan with greased plastic and let the dough rise for 60 to 90 minutes, until it's puffy and starting to fill the pan. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F., Uncover the pan, and bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it's golden brown on top; a digital thermometer inserted into the center will read 190°F., Remove the bread from the oven, allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely., While you’re waiting for the bread to cool, cook and chop the bacon (we recommend baking it), and chop the chives., In a medium bowl combine the bacon with the cheese., Once the loaf has cooled, slice it down to within 1” of the base (you’ll want the bottom to remain unsliced in order to maintain the ring), using the scalloped pattern as a guide if the loaf was baked in a party Bundt pan, or cutting at 1" intervals if it was baked in another tube-style pan., Gently pull each section of the Bundt away from its neighbor and fill the cavity with a heaping tablespoon of the bacon-cheddar mixture., Once all the cavities have been filled, sprinkle the chopped chives over the entire loaf., Tent the filled bread with foil, and return it to a 350°F oven. Bake the filled bread for 25 to 30 minutes, removing the foil for the final 5 to 10 minutes of baking, until the cheese has fully melted into the cavities., Remove the filled bread from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving., Store any leftover bread in the refrigerator for a day or so; freeze for longer storage.