Adapted from my Garlic herb bread and Pesto bread recipes this Spinach Feta Bread is another dimension into the world of homemade bread making. With a garlic-y feta cheese and mozzarella combination we take fluffy white yeast bread and stuff it with Greek flavors.
Recipes like the Vegemite Bread, Slow Cooker Cheese And Bacon Bread and Slow Cooker Apple Cake enter the world of yeast free bread making in the slow cooker.
The Baked Camembert Platter, Spinach And Bacon Cob Loaf, French Onion Cob Loaf and the Bacon And Cheese Cob Loaf are ways to enjoy store bought bread.
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🤍 SPINACH FETA BREAD
Before I started baking my own bread I felt there was a mystery about it. Messy hands from the dough, sticky fingers and caked on wet batter. Over time and with a few little tricks I implemented it is now a joyous process that delivers exceptionally wonderful results.
For this spinach and feta bread we combine the dough in a food processor bowl so there is no stand mixer required. Then whilst we let that rise we make the spinach, salty feta, garlic, butter and cheese filling.
We then merge those 2 layers before baking in a steamy oven. Its one of those recipes that you want to pat yourself on the back before as you hastily dig in.
🥗 Ingredients
There are 2 sets of ingredients that you need to make this bread. The 1st set is for the dough. These ingredients are seen below.
Bread Dough Ingredients:
- Yeast: instant active yeast.
- Sugar.
- Salt.
- Butter: this is the soft spreadable type of butter that comes in a tun. The type that you would use to spread on toast.
- Milk: you can use either full cream milk or lower fat skim milk.
- Plain flour: this is the main ingredient and primary of the dry ingredients.
The second set of ingredients needed is to make the spinach feta mixture. These are seen in the next photo.
Spinach Feta Mixture:
- Spinach: I like to use fresh spinach.
- Garlic: chunky chopped garlic.
- Butter: this is unsalted butter from a block. The type that is hard and firm. Room temperature is best to ensure it is soft and will mix in easily or simply microwave for 20-30 seconds before adding to the other ingredients.
- Feta: salty and delicious, the key ingredient in this spinach and feta bread.
- Cheese: mozzarella is recommend for its mild flavor and cheesy pull.
😉 Variations
Here are my sub ins and outs that you might be thinking about as you read the post and I will tell you if I think they will work or why they won't:
- Cheese: I like to use Greek feta cheese. You could also use Danish feta. If you want to add a little parmesan cheese to the shredded mozzarella you can.
👩🍳 How to Make spinach feta bread
Grab out your food processor and give it a light spray with cooking oil. Then add the dough ingredients to it and give it a 30-40 second blitz. You will see the dough come together quickly, in one shape and pull away from the edges of the bowl.
🍳 Instructions
- Add bread ingredients (Photo 1)
- Combine (Photo 2)
- Into large mixing bowl (Photo 3)
- Cover, rise 1 hour (Photo 4)
Tip the combined dough onto a lightly floured surface, give it a quick (less than 40 second) knead, then put it into a greased mixing bowl. Cover with cling wrap and a tea towel. Let it rise for 1 hour.
- Chop the spinach, add the butter and garlic (Photo 5)
- Add the feta and combine (Photo 6)
SPINACH AND FETA BREAD
Use a knife and cutting board to chop the spinach into small pieces then add the butter, garlic and chopped spinach to a small mixing bowl. Stir to consistently combine then use your hands to crumble the feta in (keep it big and chunky) then gently fold this in.
- Roll out the dough (Photo 7)
- Dollop with the spinach mixture (Photo 8)
Next lightly flour the bench surface and take the risen dough out of the bowl. Roll it out into a large rectangle as if you were making a big pizza. Keep the dough a bit 'pizza crust' thick.
Next use a spoon to dollop the spinach and feta mixture onto the dough then flip the spoon and use the back of it to spread it out like you see in the photos below.
- Spread with spinach mix (Photo 9)
- Add cheese on top (Photo 10)
Next sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the top like in the photos above.
Then once done, use a pizza cutter to slice the large flat dough into about 16 even (ish) pieces. Then use a cake lifter to scoop the pieces into your hand and once you have one stack (from one row) place these vertically into the greased loaf tin.
Repeat till the bread is all in the tin (push it sideways as you work so that it fits). Pick up and leftover cheese from the bench and sprinkle it over the bread in the tin.
Then cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel. Let rise for 25 minutes.
- Stack into bread tin (Photo 11)
- Cover and rise (Photo 12)
Once this second rise time is up, remove the tea towel and plastic wrap (discard).
Then cover the bread with a tent (see video, we use both baking paper and aluminum foil). Place into a preheated oven (middle shelf) and pour 1 cup of water into a baking tray on a lower rack.
Bake the bread for 30-35 minutes.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
This one could be breakfast, brunch or lunch! It's more of a stand along bread than the Garlic Bread or Pesto Bread.
That being said it still works well as part of a bigger meal. Try it alongside the Tuna And Corn Fritters, Prawn Fritters, Ham Fritters, Zucchini And Carrot Fritters and the Bacon And Corn Fritters.
Serve it with a salad like the Cherry Tomato Caprese Salad, Salmon Potato Salad or the Herb Salad.
Take it to a gathering or BBQ as 'your plate', make it for family, friends and other loves ones.
The 'tear apart' nature of the bread makes it easy to share and no knife is needed as people can literally pull it apart.
👍 How to Guide
How to Store
Once the bread has cooled, if you have any leftovers, you can transfer them to an airtight container. I don't refrigerate it as it goes too firm. So consume that day or the next.
💡 Tasty Tips
Here are my top tips and tricks that I want to share with you so that you master the recipe from the get go:
- Sticky dough: there are a couple of ways to avoid the dreaded wet sticky hands and fingers when working with dough. A lightly floured surface is one as is spraying cooling oil into the food processor and into the mixing bowl. These small tricks will ensure that the bread doesn't stick, your hands remain clean and the entire process will be more enjoyable.
- Knead: this is not a 'need to knead it for hours bread'. We do 2 short/quick kneads. The 1st is when we take the dough out of the food processor. This is to soften the shagginess. The 2nd is when the dough has risen for the 1st time and we are preparing to roll it out. Each time you can add some flour to the bench top.
- Loaf tin: if you have a non stick loaf tin you can simply spray it with olive oil or cooking spray. This will ensure that the bread can easily be removed from the tin without using baking paper. If however, your bread tin is not non stick then simply layer 2 sheets of overlapping parchment paper into the base. See the Pesto Bread as I do that there.
- Love savoury baking? Then you might like to try the Savoury Mince Pies, Caramelised Onion Sausage Rolls, Caramelised Onion Tarts or the Cheeseburger Sausage Rolls.
🤓 spinach feta bread FAQ's
Yes it is.
No, the recipe contains gluten.
You can use either. My preference is Greek feta due to the crumbly texture of the block of cheese.
Yes. This is a yeast based bread recipe and as such it needs time to rise. This is done in 2 parts. 1 one hour rise and then later 1 25 minute rise.
😍 More Easy BAKED Recipes
Here is where I like to offer you more ideas that you might not have though of, related to the bread recipe. These offer a variety of ingredients, methods and cook times.
- Breakfast and brunch recipes: Croissant Bread And Butter Pudding, Egg And Croissant Bake, Blueberry Croissant Bake.
- Lunch recipes: Brie Grilled Cheese, Mini Croissant Sandwiches, Air Fryer Croissants, Brie Croissant.
- More cheese recipes: Baked Brie With Pepper Jelly, Honey Pecan Cream Cheese, Honey Walnut Cream Cheese.
- More side dishes: French Onion Potato Bake, Potato And Cauliflower Bake, Potato And Broccoli Bake.
It is time to get our spinach feta bread on my friend! You can also find all of my lunch recipes or side dish recipes in the one spot.
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
Ingredients
Bread ingredients
- 3 ½ cups/565 grams plain flour Note 1
- 1 tablespoon white sugar Note 2
- 1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast Note 3
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ⅓ cups milk Note 4
- 2 tablespoons softened butter
Spinach and feta ingredients
- 2 cups fresh spinach leaves firmly packed, then chopped which leaves about ½ cups
- 150 grams butter
- 1 tablespoon garlic
- 200 grams Greek feta cheese this is one standard block
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese Note 5
Instructions
- Loaf/bread tin: grease a 21 x 11 x 7 cm non stick loaf pan (8.3 x 4.5 x 2.75") with cooking spray.
- Bread dough: use cooking spray to lightly grease the bowl, blade and inner lid of a food processor. Then add the plain flour, sugar, yeast, salt, milk and butter. Blitz to combine for less than 40 seconds. You will see the dough come away from the edges and form one large shape.
- Knead: tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, give it a quick knead and then place it into a greased mixing bowl. Cover with cling wrap and a tea towel and let it rise for 1 hour.
- Spinach feta mixture: add the butter, chopped spinach and garlic to a small mixing bowl and combine. Crumble in the feta cheese and then stir again to combine. Note 6
- Layers: remove the tea towel and discard the plastic wrap. Lightly flour the bench surface and then take the dough out of the bowl. Roll it out in a large rectangle shape with pizza size thickness (½ cm or 0.19 inch). Use a soup spoon to dollop the spinach mixture onto the rolled dough in about 6 different spots. Then flip the spoon and use the back of it to spread the spinach mixture out leaving a slight border on all 4 edges. Use a pizza slice to cut this large rectangle with 3 long cuts in either direction. Then take the pieces (stack 4-5) in one hand and place them vertically into the bread tin. Move them to one end as you continue to stack so that they all fit. Then cover the bread with cling wrap and a tea towel and let rise for 25 minutes. Preheat the oven during this time following the temperature guide below.
- Preheat the oven: preheat the oven to 180°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5.
- Oven bake: remove the tea towel and discard the plastic wrap. Tent the bread then place into the oven on the middle shelf. Pour 1 cup on water into a baking tray on a lower rack. Bake the bread for 30-35 minutes.
- To cool: use oven mitts to remove the loaf tin and set it onto a wire cooling rack. Remove the tent. Let the bread cool for 5-10 minutes before using a butter knife around the perimeter to break the seal. Gently remove the cooked bread from the tin.
- To serve: serve warm and fresh. Let it be pulled apart, torn apart and dug into!
Video
Notes
- Note 1 - Flour: this is plain all purpose flour. We don't need to sift this.
- Note 2- Sugar: I am in Australia and our tablespoons measure 20ml. This is larger than other parts of the world. The recipe has been tested with 1 x metric 20 gram tablespoon of white sugar.
- Note 3 - Yeast: this is instant yeast. It is the type that does not need liquid to activate it.
- Note 4 - Milk: both full cream milk and skim milk can be used. My preference is to use skim milk.
- Note 5 - Mozzarella cheese: you can grate this yourself from a block of fresh mozzarella cheese or you can use store bought shredded mozzarella cheese. Choose your preference.
- Note 6 - Feta cheese: the reason why I add the butter, garlic and spinach and combine before adding the feta is because we still want big chunky bits of feta in the bread. You need a little elbow grease to combine the initial ingredients and then simply a gentle stir to fold in the feta cheese. If we add the feta at the start but the time it is consistently mix in the pieces will be very grainy and small.
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