RECIPE | Pull-apart bread

This bread has a cheesy filling and is made so you don’t have to cut it when done. You simply pull it apart.

Ingredients (enough for 4)

• 2½ cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ tablespoon instant yeast
• ¹⁄₃ cup milk
• ½ cup butter
• 3-4 tablespoons water
• 2 large eggs
• ¹⁄₃ cup red-pepper pesto
• ½ cup cream cheese
• 1 packet (200 g) bacon, fried and finely chopped
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Here’s how

1 Mix together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl.

2 Heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted. Stir in the water and allow to cool slightly so it’s lukewarm before pouring it into the flour mixture. Stir thoroughly together to form a dough. Add the eggs one by one and knead the dough well after each one.

3 Turn out the dough onto a flour-sprinkled surface and knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is soft and slightly sticky. Add 1-2 tablespoons of flour if it is too sticky to knead, but no more than that. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with cling film and allow to rise in a warm place to double its volume.

4 Remove the risen dough carefully from the bowl and put it back on the flour-sprinkled surface. Loosely knock and pull the dough until it forms a rough

rectangle, then roll it out to a large rectangle of 30 x 50 cm.

5 Mix together the pesto and cream cheese, and spread the mixture evenly over

the dough. Sprinkle over the bacon and cheese – press them slightly into the dough. Cut the rectangle into 4 equal strips along its width and then 4 strips lengthwise. You’ll now have 16 portions. Divide them into 4 stacks of 4 portions each.

6 Smear a cast iron bread pan with butter or line with baking paper. Pack the  stacks of dough into the pan so it looks like slices of bread in the pan. Make sure the first and last portion’s unfilled side faces the bread pan’s edge. Cover the pan loosely and set it aside for 30 minutes in a warm spot to rise again.

7 Cover the pan with a piece of baking paper smeared with butter loosely over the bread and then put on the lid. Spoon 4 small coals on the lid and then bake the bread on a rack or grid over medium coals for 30-40 minutes.

8 Turn out the bread, and have every guest break off a piece.