Cheese, Pesto and Dried Tomato Twisted Buns – My Diverse Kitchen
We’re at the end of 2024 and I just realised I’ve hardly posted anything last year on the the blog! 2024 has been more memorable for all the health issues I had to deal with. They weren’t very serious, but painful sciatic issues and a fractured knee cap pretty much meant that blogging or even cooking was a priority. Thankfully, I’m mending well if slowly, and have even progressed to baking the occasional bread. So here I am with Cheese, Pesto and Dried Tomato Twisted Buns.
This December Cathy chose Swedish Cardamom Buns for us Bread Baking Babes to make. I’ve made them before in various shapes and flavours and posted these Kanel Snegle with cardamom (Cinnamon Snails). Cathy gave us the option to experiment with savoury flavours if we wanted to, and I did. The result? Cheese, Pesto and Dried Tomato Twisted Buns!
Please see Karen’s recipe for the original sweet version. She has sourdough or overnight regular yeast dough recipes. I adapted the given yeast dough recipe but chose to do a same day bread. The overnight method produces buns with improved flavour. I otherwise stuck mostly to her yeast dough recipe but omitted the sugar.
My bun filling is made with crumbled paneer and basil pesto blended to a creamy paste. I also added chopped oven dried tomato and grated cheddar cheese. This filling can end up being quite salty from the pesto, dried tomatoes and Cheddar so be cautious while adding salt.
What is really special about these twist buns as I call them, is twisting the dough to shape them. If can’t be bothered trying to shape them and want to keep it simple, you can roll the dough jam/ jelly roll style. Then cut them into rounds much like for Cinnamon Rolls and you’ll have snail shaped buns.
There are a couple of other different ways to shape these bus. A search on Youtube for “shaping cardamom buns” will throw up plenty of short but detailed videos. I used an easy method that is described in the recipe below. You can halve the given recipe for 6 Twist Buns instead of 12.
Cheese, Pesto and Dried Tomato Twisted Buns
Swedish cardamom style shaped buns but savoury and filled with paneer, basil pesto, Cheddar cheese, dried tomatoes.
Ingredients
For the Yeast Dough:
- 1 cup milk
- 75 gm unsalted butter soft at room temperature
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg optional
For the Cheese, Pesto and Dried Tomato Filling:
- 1/4 cup crumbled paneer
- 1/4 cup basil pesto
- 1/4 cup chopped dried tomatoes
- 1/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese
- Salt and red chilli flakes to taste
Instructions
Day 1 – Mix, Fold, Chill Dough :
- Warm the milk and butter in a small saucepan over low heat, till the butter is melted. Cool to room temp before incorporating in the dough.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, yeast, salt and egg. Add the cooled milk/butter mixture and knead till a soft, smooth, and elastic dough forms. Place the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover, and let the dough rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours till almost double in volume.
- Turn the dough out onto your counter and gently punch the dough down. Pat the dough into a 10 × 6-inch rectangle, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight (about 8 to 24 hours). The overnight rest in the refrigerator improves flavour and also allows the dough to stiffen up for shaping.
Day 2 – Shape, Proof, Bake :
For the Cheese, Pesto and Dried Tomato Filling:
- Blend the crumbled paneer and pesto (I used basil pesto) till smooth. Keep aside with the chopped dried tomatoes and the grated Cheddar cheese.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to warm up to room temperature for 10-15 minutes.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and roll out to a rectangle 1/4-inch thick and about 14 × 20-inches. Spread the paneer-pesto blended paste over the surface of the dough to the edge, evenly but not too thick. Evenly sprinkle the chopped dried tomato and then grated Cheddar cheese over this. With your fingers, very lightly press down the filling into the dough.
- With the long side facing you, fold the dough in half, over itself. Gently press the edges together. Roll out the rectangle into a 7 × 15-inches rectangle. Using a pizza wheel, sharp knife, or bench scraper, cut the dough into twelve 7-inch long strips. To make it easier to divide the dough, make small notches every 1 1/4- inches to use as a guide while cutting the strips.
- Stretch the 7” strips out to about 15-inches. To do this, hold up one end of the strip and gently pull the dough until it reaches 15 inches in length. Be careful not to tear the dough. If the strips resist stretching, let them rest for 10 minutes, then continue stretching.
- Using the pizza wheel, cut exactly in the middle of each strip, along the length, keeping one end joined. It should look something like a pair of trousers/ pants with long legs. From the joined end, twist both strands over each other like a rope all the way to the other end. Roll the twisted dough into a circle and tuck the loose end under the sahped bun. Repeat this will all the dough strips.
- Place the shaped buns on parchment-lined baking sheets, allowing space for them to rise. Cover and let rise in a draft-free place for about an hour, or till almost double in size ½ – 2 hours, or longer, until doubled in size.
- Brush the buns with melted butter or milk and bake them at 190C (375F) for about 25 minutes, till golden brown. Let them cool on a wire rack. Serve.
The Bread Baking Babes are –
Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire – Katie
Blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth