It’s been a long while since I have posted anything savoury, so I thought why not?. I’m always inventive in the kitchen, for dinner, I don’t take any photos of it as the time it takes the photos all the food turns cold 🙁 so I just stick mainly to baking.

I have made this pull apart bread before but the original version, which is so delicious.I like pull apart bread it’s all about sharing and fun. I like that there is a lot of flavours. I changed the version a pesto bread. We had a jar of vegi pesto (organic sacla) and I thought I would use this. I do find their pesto slightly salty so I wasn’t sure how much to use in the dough. As it was all an experiment if it didn’t turn out then I wasn’t too bothered. This however did work out but I still prefer the original spicy bread, I think there was a lot more stronger flavour. The bread turned out pillowy soft, moist and crunchy side. 

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Pesto pull apart bread
Serves 8
A pull apart bread using pesto
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Prep Time
25 min
Cook Time
35 min
Prep Time
25 min
Cook Time
35 min
For the Dough
  1. 1/2 cup - warm milk
  2. 1 tsp - sugar
  3. 2 tsp - active dry yeast
  4. 1 cup - whole wheat flour
  5. 13/4 - 2 cups - plain flour
  6. 3/4 - salt*
  7. 2 tbsp - unsalted butter, soft at room temperature
  8. 1 tbsp - pesto
  9. 3/4 cup milk (+ a tablespoon to brush over the bread)
For the Filling
  1. 3 tbsp - melted butter
  2. 1 jar - pesto
  3. grated cheese
Instructions
  1. To make the dough
  2. 1. In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and the yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm milk. Keep aside for about 5 minutes till the yeast mixture bubbles up.
  3. 2. In a stand mixer put the whole wheat flour, 13/4 cup of plain flour, salt, softened butter, and tomato paste and mix until combined through. Then add the yeast mixture and the ¾ cup of milk and knead till you have a soft, smooth and elastic/ pliable dough which is not sticky. If the dough is sticky add a little extra flour.
  4. 3. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat it completely with oil. Cover and let it rise for about 1 to 11/2 hours or until almost double in volume.
  5. Once the the dough has risen it's time to start to make the filling.
  6. 4. Lightly dust your work surface with flour. Deflate the dough, shape it into a square and roll the dough out into a larger square that is about 12″ by 12”. Brush the surface of the square with the melted butter.
  7. 5. Spread the pesto evenly across the square. Then grate cheese over as much or as little as you want. Using a rolling pin, very lightly press the topping into the dough to ensure that it doesn’t fall off when you are stacking the strips.
  8. 6. Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough from top to bottom into 6 long and even strips, don't worry they do not have to be perfect. Lay each strip on top of the next, with the topping facing upwards, until you have a stack of the strips. Then cut the strip into 6 other strips.
  9. 7. Grease a loaf tin well with Butter and lightly flour a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan. Place the square stacks vertically, cut sides down, into the loaf tin, nestling them in as you like, to fit the pan.
  10. 8. Cover the dough with greased plastic wrap and allow the loaf to rise for an hour. Lightly brush some milk over the top of the loaf.
  11. 9.Bake the loaf at 180°C for about 35 to 40 minutes. Run a knife along the sides and then turn it out onto a cooling rack. Allow the bread to cool slightly before pulling it apart.
Notes
  1. *I changed the salt in my recipe as 1 tsp I found was slightly too much as I added cheese as well.
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