Pesto Bread

Pesto Bread is a fluffy cheesy, pull apart bread that you won't be able to get enough of! Simple to make using everyday ingredients this yeast bread bread is irresistibly delicious.

Prep Time15

Cook Time30

Proofing/rising1 25

Total Time2 10

Course: bread

Cuisine: Western

Keyword: pesto bread

Servings:

Calories: 175kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

3 ⅓ cups/420 grams plain flour no need to sift, Note 1
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 ½ teaspoons instant active dried yeast Note 2
1 ¼ cups milk Note 3
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter softened, Note 4
150 grams basil pesto Note 5
2 cup/400 grams mozzarella cheese grated, Note 6

Instructions

Baking tin: Grease a 21 x 11 x 7 cm loaf pan (8.3 x 4.5 x 2.75") spray oil and then line it with 2 overlapping sheets baking paper (parchment paper with a 1 inch overhang.
Bread mixture: add the flour, sugar, yeast, salt, milk and butter to a greased food processor bowl. Blitz for 40 seconds to combine. Remove from food processor and transfer to a large greased mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and a tea towel and let sit (rise) for 1 hour.
Segment: once the dough has risen, remove the cling wrap (discard). Lightly flour a work surface and then transfer the dough on top. Roll and shape with your hands for less than a minute and roughly shape into a wide fat log shape. Take kitchen scissors and chop the bread into small pieces about the size of 1 large date..
Pesto and cheese: place the pesto into one bowl and the shredded mozzarella cheese into another. Working 1 piece at a time dip the bread into the pesto followed by the cheese and once done place the seasoned piece of bread into the prepared loaf pan. Repeat until all of the bread has been transferred into the pan. Cover with cling wrap and a tea towel and let sit for 25 minutes.
Oven bake: remove the tea towel and cling wrap after the 2nd rise time. Place the bread into the oven Note 7 (middle shelf, tented) and pour about 1 cup of water into a wire rack with base underneath. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Cooking method: once the bread is cooked, you can test it with a skewer inserted into the middle or use a digital thermometer to ensure it is cooked through. Then use oven mitts to remove the loaf pan from the oven and set it onto a heatproof surface. Discard the tent and let the bread cool in the tin for 5-10 mins. Run a butter knife around the edge after this initial cooling time and then remove the bread and pace it onto a cooling rack.
To serve: tear and share, pull apart, spread with butter, cream cheese, eat as is or dip into soups and stews.

Video

Notes

Note 1 - Flour: this is plain flour, not self-raising flour or bread flour.
Note 2 - Yeast: this is instant active dry yeast. It can simply be added to the ingredients and combined. It does not need to be activated with liquid first.
Note 3 - Milk: I have tried this recipe using both full cream and skim milk. Both worked well with not a lot of noticeable difference. So you can use your preferred milk.
Note 4 - Butter: we need to use softened butter (unsalted). This is butter from a tub of spreadable butter not a hard block of butter. This mixes in easily with the other ingredients. I use my tablespoon and scoop it into the butter, then use a butter knife to level the spoon. Then I slice this in half so that when I add it to the other ingredients it is evenly distributed.
Note 5 - Basil pesto: to keep things easy I use a store bought tub of 'basil pesto dip'. This is in the fridge section of the supermarket where the other dips are, not the pasta aisle where the jars of pasta sauce are. The size is 150 grams which is under 1 cup of pesto.
Note 6 - Cooked bread: it is important to check the bread before turning the oven off to make sure it is cooked through. Due to the basil and cheesy top it can look cooked whilst some inner pieces of dough are still raw. So test with the skewer (should bring out only a few soft crumbs or thermometer. You can also pull a piece from the middle back a little as it will be easy to see if this is yellow/cooked through or white and needs a bit longer to fully cook.
Note 7 - Tenting the bread: you can either start to cook the bread and then tent (cover with a tent made by aluminum foil when you notice the top browning OR you can tent the bread for the whole cook time. Due to cheese we need to use both a layer of parchment paper (stops the cheese sticking) and also aluminum foil for the tent).
Note 8 - Measurements: I do use a kitchen scale when measuring ingredients for this bread recipe to ensure accuracy. Also I am in Australia. Our tablespoon measures 20 ml which is more than the 15 ml in some countries. The recipe has been developed to work with the 20 (ml or grams) metric measurement).

Nutrition