An ‘easy to bake’ bread with hidden flavours. Simply follow the recipe, bake your own herbed bread and slice it to admire the piece of art that you baked. Serve it with a topping, or simply toast and butter it… will taste good any way!
We have already taught you a regular whole wheat bread, now its time to up your game with bread-making. We make this exactly how we made our whole wheat bread earlier. The process remains same but we’re making a white loaf and putting a layer of basil pesto inside. You can refer to our recipes for basil pesto – Basil Pesto & Vegan Basil Pesto.
First we’ll make a regular bread dough. So, we need flour, water, milk butter, yeast and sugar.
Add the sugar to the flour and keep aside.
Dissolve the yeast in very warm water. It should not be hot or boiling but not lukewarm either. You should be able to put your finger in it and feel its hot but not want to take it out. It will turn smooth once the yeast has dissolved.
Add the butter and milk and let it dissolve in the warm mixture. You can also melt it beforehand and then add.
Knead the dough well. Let it rest in a warm place till almost doubled. Then punch it down. Thats the most fun part! You’ll see that it will have a web like formation. That is great. It suggests your yeast was well incorporated everywhere and is actively working.
Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Make depressions with your fingers and brush olive oil on it. Spread basil pesto on it. Leave the top part empty so the once we roll the bread can seal well. The oil may prevent it from holding its shape and the rolled loaf could split open.
You can see we’ve left the top part without oil or pesto, so that the loaf can seal well.
Put it seam side down on the baking tray. Make sure you put it on the tray you will eventually be baking it in. Meanwhile, preheat your oven. After proving, the bread will puff up and take its shape. Then it’s ready to bake. Bake it at 200˚ C / 400 degrees F.
Once baked, it will be a golden brown colour. Knock on the base of the bread and if you hear a hollow sound then its baked through. You can also check with a bread thermometer. But since most people don’t use one, knocking is the best alternate.
Slice it with a bread knife only when its completely cooled. Otherwise the bread will be sticky and crumbly.
It will already be very fragrant and flavourful because of the pesto. You can eat it just by itself or the best way is to toast it very lightly and spread a little olive oil or butter and eat it warm or toasted.
So, here’s a fresh herbed loaf that will surely brighten up your breakfast table and maybe even your day. You can make this to impress or simply enjoy a quite wholesome breakfast at home. For the pesto recipe click here.
You can make this healthy by using our wholewheat bread recipe and then continue the herbed loaf recipe process after first proofing.
Recipe: Herbed Loaf Bread
Ingredients:
4-5 tbsp basil pesto / vegan basil pesto 350 gm flour 2 ¼ tsp dried yeast 1 ½ tbsp sugar 1 tsp salt 180 ml warm water 50 ml milk 1 tbsp butter
Method:
In a bowl take half the flour. Add sugar and salt to it.
In another bowl dissolve the yeast in warm water, add milk and butter. Add this liquid mixture to flour mixture and mix.
Gradually add in more flour and knead for 8-10 mins to get a soft dough.
Place in a bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for 30-60 mins or until double.
Roll it into approx. an 8 x 11-inch rectangle. Keep the shorter end towards your side and spread the basil pesto evenly.
Leave a ½ -inch border on 3 sides facing away from you. Start rolling from the side towards you. Roll it up tightly like a swiss roll or pinwheel.
Seal the edges and the seam. Place it seam side down onto the baking tray, on which you will bake it later
Cover and leave in a warm place for 30-60 mins or until double.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
After your bread has risen, make cuts on top of the bread and bake for 25-30 mins.