Lil Miss A learnt about 'Taco Tuesday' at school and then came the turn of 'Friday Pizza Night' - so, these are 2 traditions that we have at home. Well, the same taco or the same pizza is not allowed for atleast a month, that is another house rule. We are foodies and we truly believe in the saying "variety is the spice of life".
Last Friday - we had our first 'Friday Pizza Night'. Lil Miss A had her pepperoni pizza (turkey pepperoni) and we had our spicy italian sausage topped pizza. We had some leftover dough, and these yummy spiral babies came from that. They pulled apart like monkey bread and the pesto filling made it colorful and tasty.
The pesto used was a basil pesto - the most simple one. Topped it with some cheddar and mozarella shredded cheese.
I have cut the recipe to make a round pull-apart spiral roll in a 9 inch round cake pan.
Ingredients
For Pesto
1 cup packed basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic
1 green chilli
salt to tastee
pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
For Bread Rolls
3/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups bread flour OR All Purpose Flour (APF)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dry Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
5 tablespoons shredded mozzarella cheese
Method
For Pesto
Mix all the ingredients in a food processor - except the oil. Pulse it a few times to get everything together. Now start the processor and pour olive oil through its inlet. I like my pesto to be creamy, so the processor ran for about a minute. If you like it a bit chunky, process accordingly. Pour it into a glass jar and refrigerate. You can use this in pastas, or as a spread on sandwiches or as a dip or for the yeasty rolls we made here.
For Bread Rolls
you can knead this by your hands too - but, I prefer using my kitchenaid bowl mixer. In the bowl add the warm water and sugar and yeast. Let this sit for about 10 minutes. You will see bubbles coming up and a sweet beer like smell - it just shows that the yeast is active and you can go ahead with the other ingredients. Now add the flour, salt, italian seasoning, garlic powder and oil. First use the stir function and then mix it using the dough attachment. I generally knead the dough for a good 7 to 10 minutes to get the gluten going. When a nice smooth dough is formed - cover it with some oil and put a clean kitchen towel over the bowl and let the dough rest for 1 and 1/2 hours. In this time the dough will rise and become double. This time can vary between 1 to 1 1/2 hours depending on how warm and humid it is.
Once its doubled in size - punch the dough and knead it for another 2 minutes. Now take some flour on a flat surface and put the dough on it and roll it into a rectangle shape about 10 inches long and 6 inche wide. Now put the pesto in the middle and spread it all over the rolled dough. I used about 4 tablespoons of pesto. sprinkle some shredded cheese, about 3 tablespoons. Now roll into a round shape like you would for cinnamon rolls - you will roll on the 10 inch side to get a 10 inch long roll. Cut it into equal portions - I got 17 portions. You could do less or more. Grease the 9 inch round cake pan and line these portions equally around keeping some space between each of them to allow them to rise. Cover and let it rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes. In the last 15 minutes preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.Once the rolls have doubled in size - put them into the preheated oven. After 10 minutes remove the pan and added the remainder of the shredded cheese. Put it back into the oven for about 5 minutes.
Serve hot with pesto on the side or tomato ketchup or just savor them as is.