Cottage cheese and mint stuffed bread

Its time for this month's bread for WKTB. Aparna was busy with organizing the fabulous Foodbloggers meet in Bangalore and I was miserable that I couldn't attend it. Have been reading about all the fun and learning that happened at the meet and can't help feeling sorry for myself for being so far away.



This month, since she was all tied up, she asked us to bake a decorative bread, filled with something savoury. I really love baking bread and its so much simpler than it seems, but never thought about making a decorative one. The most creative experiment with bread was my braided bread and I wanted to try something new this time.



Inspired by this flower shaped bread here, I decided to make that. As usual, I was running late and though I was contemplating 20 different ideas for the savoury filling, I decided on this one with paneer and mint. It has lovely Indian flavours and the bread turned out quite pretty. I thought it looked like a flower, but my son insisted it looked like the sun !



It was quite a task to use the camera while shaping the bread. I used my phone and the pics aren't too great, but I hope it gives you an idea of how to make it

This bread is sent to Susan's Yeastspotting page.

Decorative stuffed bread
Adapted from ChefinDisguise

What you need -

2.5 cups maida / APF
1/2 cup wheat flour
3/4 cup warm milk
1/4 cup warm water
2 tsp instant yeast
4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter
For the filling -
1/2 cup cottage cheese / paneer
1/4 cup packed mint leaves
4 tbsp shredded cheese
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
a pinch of salt

What you do with it -

In a bowl, add the warm milk, warm water, butter, sugar and yeast and stir gently
In a large bowl, add the flours and salt
Make a well in the flour and pour in the yeast mixture
Knead for about 6-8 mins till a smooth elastic dough is formed
Place in a greased bowl and cover with cling wrap
Keep it in a warm place for about one and half hours or till it doubles in size
Meanwhile, crumble the cottage cheese and add the grated cheese to it
Chop the mint leaves really fine and add to the cheese
Add the spice powders and salt
Combine and set aside
Once the dough has risen, punch it down and divide it into two balls
Dust the surface with flour and roll out the ball of dough into a rectangle. Use a pizza cutter to cut the sides and get a rectangle shape
Place the filling on the rolled dough leaving about half an inch on each side
Start form the longer end and roll the dough to get a long pipe shape with the filling tucked inside
Turn the two ends towards each other and pinch the ends together to form a circle
Make slits at every 2 cms, a little more than halfway to the centre
Turn each slit to the right
Place a few sesame seeds on top and brush the bread with milk. Cover with a thin cloth and allow it to rise again for 15 mins
Pre-heat the oven to 200 C
Place the tray with the bread in the middle rack and bake for 25 mins
Brush with butter once its done.The stuffing has enough spice, but if you like, you could serve this with ketchup or a chutney