This year the Christmas market is particularly beautiful! The wooden huts, the smell of Glühwein and roasted almonds, all those wonderful gift items that are being sold, while you can hear Christmas music in the background..
No wonder I decided to take the longer route – again – going downtown to run errands. Just so I could stroll a bit around and feel that beautiful atmosphere. And I’m glad I did! It turned out into an inspirational walk for dinner, as soon as I walked by the man selling roasted chestnuts. Oh, how much I love that smell!! Immediately it crossed my mind that just the day before my brother’s girlfriend was telling me about eating a chestnut soup at a restaurant. So, what did I do? I adjusted my plans, and added spontaneously a detour to the grocery store to buy them. I wanted a chestnut soup. Asap. And when I put something into my head, it’s quite a challenge to dissuade me from that.
Well, you must have already noticed that this post is not about soup. But thanks to that, I actually ended up making a pull-apart bread, while I was wondering what we could eat the soup with? Given the fact that I bake bread most of the time, this time I felt like I wanted something more than plain homemade bread. That was the moment this recipe crossed my mind. I could see both matching so perfectly together, that I had to go ahead and give this experiment a try. Luckily the outcome was oh so yummy! I bet you can imagine what the kitchen was smelling like while baking the bread…
Let’s begin with the herb and parmesan pull-apart bread recipe. The soup recipe will follow shortly :)
Ingredients:
Dough:
550 g / 19½ oz of flour
80 ml / 2¾fl oz of milk (lukewarm)
200 ml / 6¾fl oz of water (lukewarm)
50 g / 1¾ oz of butter
20 g / 1 full tbsp of fresh yeast (alternatively 7 g / 1 full tsp of dry yeast)
1 tsp of sugar
2 tsp of salt
Topping:
min. 3 tbsp of liquid herb butter
1 minced garlic clove
chopped herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley)
parmesan cheese
* * * * *
Mix lukewarm water and milk. Stir in yeast, sugar and soft butter.
Add flour and salt and knead to a dough. Cover and let it rest for about 1h in a warm place.
Preheat the oven at 180°C/356°F.
Melt the herb butter in a pan and stir in the garlic. Place baking paper on the cake pan.
I split the dough into two parts. One half went into a small loaf pan and the other half into a small springform pan (Note: Both are approx. ½ the size of normal sized pans).
For the springform pan version: Make homogeneous rolls (7 or more). Coat each single one with the liquid herb butter and sprinkle with the chopped herbs. Place into the round pan, one next to the other, until the dough covers the whole pan. Top with leftover herb butter and grated parmesan cheese.
For the loaf pan version: Roll the dough into a rectangle with a rolling pin (approx. 0,5 cm / 0,20 inches thick). Top with herb butter, chopped herbs and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Cut the dough lengthwise into equal strips (the final squares need to have the hight of the loaf pan). Place one strip on top of the other (with the topping side up). Now cut the stripes widthwise into equal squares. Place again on top of each other with the topping side up, and finally into the loaf pan. Sprinkle with leftover herb butter and parmesan cheese, to taste.
Let them rest for additional 20min.
Bake approx. 30min. Serve warm.
Prep Time: 2h
rosasdolcevitaRosa says
These look delicious! :-)
mediterranealicious says
Grazie Rosa :))
catherinecuisine says
This looks so delicious!
mediterranealicious says
Merci beaucoup Catherine! Thanks for stopping by.
bakeaffairs says
Thats a great recipe, thank you for sharing this!
mediterranealicious says
Thank you Brigitte. You’re very welcome! Happy Holidays :)
bakeaffairs says
Happy Holidays to you too! :-)
mediterranealicious says
Thank you :)