Go Back

Breaking Bread with Pesto Pull Apart Loaf

“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight... [Breadmaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony.It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells...
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup milk warm
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 tsps yeast active dry yeast instant / active dry
  • 3 cups all purpose flour (maida)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsps butter soft
  • 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp butter olive oil OR +
  • 3 to 4 cloves garlic , grated
  • 1/2 tsp garlic OR fresh paste
  • 3/4 cup milk (at room temp)
  • 1/2 cup Pesto
  • 2 tbsps butter melted

Method
 

  1. Dissolve sugar in xbd cup slightly warm milk (slightly over room temp, any warmer and yeast will be killed).
  2. Mix the yeast into this and cover for 5 minutes. Milk with froth and bubble, indicating yeast is active.
  3. In a large bowl, take flour, salt, grated garlic, soft butter / olive oil, add this yeast mixture and use upto xbe cup more milk at room temp. Knead to make a soft pliable dough.
  4. Grease a large bowl with oiled fingers. Place the ball of dough in this and allow to prove for 60-90 minutes, until dough doubles in volume.
  5. After doubling- punch down air gently, make a ball again and on a clean floured surface, roll this out to a rectangle u2013roughly 20 x 12 inches. Using a measuring scale, cut out the rectangle into a square of 12 x 12 and use the remaining strip of dough to make other baby loaves or rolls.
  6. Brush surface with melted butter and then smear pesto (or any other filling such as coriander chutney, tomato pickle, cheese for other flavours) all over the surface.
  7. Cut this square into 6 equal strips 2 inches wide (a pizza cutter works well for this).
  8. Stack the strips one on top of the other, pesto side up.
  9. Cut these stacked strips again into 2u201d wide squares (6 squares). So you will get 6 square stacks of 6 layers each.
  10. In a parchment / foil lined loaf tin (not the very broad kind) u2013 line the stacks next to each other like pages of a book, making sure the pesto smeared top of the stack are all facing one direction.
  11. Cover with damp towel and allow this to rise in a warm place for one hour.
  12. Preheat oven at 180C. Gently brush the top of the risen loaf with milk and place this in the middle of the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, till itu2019s lightly golden on the top. Serve warm with pasta or eat as it in like an appetiser.

Notes

You can make plenty of variations as mention in (6) – choose from spices like panch-phoron, chilli flakes, roasted ajwain, cumin seeds to sprinkle before cutting into strips and stacking.