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.
- 1/2 cup - warm milk
- 1 tsp - sugar
- 2 tsp - active dry yeast
- 1 cup - whole wheat flour
- 13/4 - 2 cups - plain flour
- 3/4 - salt*
- 2 tbsp - unsalted butter, soft at room temperature
- 1 tbsp - pesto
- 3/4 cup milk (+ a tablespoon to brush over the bread)
- 3 tbsp - melted butter
- 1 jar - pesto
- grated cheese
- To make the dough
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Once the the dough has risen it's time to start to make the filling.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- *I changed the salt in my recipe as 1 tsp I found was slightly too much as I added cheese as well.
