We've all heard of garlic bread, but pesto bread? This recipe takes savoury bread to a whole other level. Homemade bread filled with thick bands of homemade pesto is paired with a grated parmesan and garlic powder topping to pull all the flavours together.
INGREDIENTS:
Dough:
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 3 cups bread flour
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
Pesto:
- ½ cup toasted pine nuts
- ¾ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 5 cups fresh basil
- ⅓-⅔ cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
Topping:
- 2 tablespoons grated parmesan
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
METHOD:
Pesto
- Pulse pine nuts, parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, and basil in a food processor until combined, 1 minute.
- With the food processor on, slowly add olive oil until the pesto becomes smooth, about 1 minute.
Bread
- Mix water and milk and heat to lukewarm. Stir in the yeast and let sit while you sift the dry ingredients.
- Sift together the flour, sugar and salt.
- Add the milk mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer and turn to medium-high speed with the dough hook. Add the butter and the dry ingredients ½ cup at a time and mix until the dough comes together. Lower speed to medium and knead for 3-5 minutes.
- Transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes.
- Roll dough out onto a lightly greased countertop to a 25 x 50cm rectangle.
- Spread ¾ cup pesto onto the dough, leaving about 1cm boarder. Roll the dough into a 25cm log and pinch the seam closed. Scrunch the log down a bit to fit in your loaf pan and place the dough seam-side down.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise again for 30 minutes.
- Mix topping ingredients together and preheat oven to 180°C.
- Remove plastic wrap and sprinkle the topping on the loaf. Bake for 40-45 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Allow the loaf to cool before slicing.