Russian Braided Bread with Pesto Filling
Staying in the US for last five years, has made me realise the importance of homemade food. Not that, I didn't appreciate it earlier, but the food is so excessively processed here, that I started thinking that I should bake/cook food at home. My husband and my son (who's now 3 years old) gave me such great reviews when I baked my first bread that it encouraged me to bake more and add a lot of variety to the various breads I make.
When we had been to Europe, we had tasted this yummy bread along with a very delicious tomato soup. I still can't forget it's taste. I searched for the recipe quite a lot and finally came across this recipe by Ms. Barbara Shieving. Here is the link . I have made some changes in the original recipe and and the proportion has also been altered in my recipe.This recipe is bang on ten on ten and is a regular favorite of my family on Thursday Bakes. Many of my friends suggested that there is ready made bread dough available in the market,but I prefer making my own dough from the scratch. If you want to use the ready made dough, you can go ahead and then add the pesto filling before baking it.
Ingredients:
- All purpose Flour : 3 cups,
- Instant yeast: 2 teaspoons. I use Fleischmann's Instant Dry Yeast,
- Sugar: 2 Teaspoons,
- Salt : 1 Teaspoon,
- Warm water: I big cup,
- Oil : 1 Tbsp I have used Canola Oil,
- Basil Pesto : 1/2 Cup ,Usually I make my own Basil Pesto but when I do not have it ready,I use Classico Basil Pesto.
Method
- Take the warm water and add the yeast,sugar and salt to it and keep it covered for 10 minutes until it gets frothy.
- Now in a large mixing bowl, take the flour and once the yeast becomes frothy add it to the flour.
- Use a hand mixer on medium for 3 minutes to mix the flour with the yeast and once the dough starts getting sticky, you can remove the hand mixer and knead the dough with your hands. If you have your stand mixer,put on the dough hook and mix for 5 minutes. I do not prefer the stand mixer and I like using my hands to knead the dough. But when kneading the dough by hands, take care not to over-knead. If you over knead after removing the hand mixer, the yeast will stop acting ,resulting in a very hard bread dough.
- Now cover this dough with a cling wrap and keep it in a warm place until it rises to double its size.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Take a 9 inch circular baking pan or if you have a spring foam pan,you can use that as well, and line it with parchment paper or wax paper.
- Now punch the risen bread dough until it deflates completely. Now place this dough on a floured surface and using a rolling pin, roll the dough in a very thin rectangle. The thinner the rectangle the more fine the braid of the bread will be.
- Spread a thin layer of the pesto over this rectangle. Now starting from the longer edge, start rolling the dough to form a log.
- I do not have the pictures of this process because I was more focused on getting it right,before my li'l ones wake up after their afternoon nap. But when I make this bread again,I will surely post the pictures. Cut the dough into half, lengthwise and place them in an X shape with the cut side facing up.
- Start laying the two pieces of dough,placing the left side over right and do this till you reach the end of the pieces. Once you reach the end of the pieces, pinch the ends together.
- Now very gently roll the braid in a spiral,inside the spring foam/baking pan. This is a very delicate bread.To get the braids well, place them facing upwards and pinch the end delicately.
- Let it rise in a warm place till it doubles in size.
- Bake the risen bread in the oven at set temperature for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature of the oven to 325 degrees F for 20-25 minutes more till the bread in nice golden brown in color and done from inside. Brush it with some butter and let it cool.
Enjoy this lovely Russian Bread with some nice soup!
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