Lisaopolis.comA Nurse's Journey to a Healthy and Balanced Life

Yesterday I was in the bread baking mood. I decided I was going to make a Sun-dried tomato bread recipe, that I had been eyeing for a little while now, in my favorite bread recipe book: Vegetarian a cooks guide to the sensational world of vegetarian cooking… edited by Valerie Ferguson (page 242). I started out only morphing the recipe a little bit (using less sun-dried tomato since I had less then the recipe called for, and instead using more onion), but ended up really creating my own recipe since the original recipe has no cheese in it, and it is also not a spiral bread.

I have been having a lot of success with spiral breads lately. The first loaf of bread I ever made from scratch was a spiral bread, and it turned out fabulous. My sun dried tomato, and cheese spiral bread turned out just as well as my onion and cheese spiral bread if not better! My bread is soft, with a mildly tomatoey  flavor, which makes it just a bit zesty. The onions combine well with the cheese to make it a very flavorful bread.

I ate my bread plain when it was still a bit warm. It really didn’t need to be eaten with anything else because it was so flavorful, and moist enough not to need any type of sauce or butter. I think my bread would go well with almost any type of meal. It would be wonderful with salads or to soak up the sauce of a saucy pasta dish.

Before baking

After baking

Sun Dried Tomato, and Cheese Spiral Bread
*Makes 2 medium to take sized loaves of bread

6 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp white sugar
4 tsp quick rise yeast
2 cups lukewarm milk ( I microwave it for one minute to get this temperature)
¼-½ cup sun dried tomato pieces
5 tbsp oil from the tomato jar
5 tbsp olive oil
1 medium to large onion (chopped and fried to brown)
1 cup grated low fat marble or cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 100 degrees F. In a large bowl add the flour, salt, and sugar. Mix well. Add the yeast and stir to combine. Stir in the milk and oil. Add the sun dried-tomato and about 2 tbsp of the onion. Knead the dough to form a soft dough (for about 10 minutes). Cover the dough with some greased plastic wrap and place in a warm spot to rise for 1-2 hours (I use the oven at 100 degrees F this cuts the rising time in half, only use the oven with a stainless steel mixing bowl though!) until doubled in size. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Divide the dough into two balls. Roll each ball out into a flat fairly thick rectangle. Spread the onions evenly over each rolled out rectangle. Sprinkle cheese evenly over each rectangle. Roll up the dough to form a large roll. Place in two bread pans. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the loafs are golden in color and sound hollow inside when tapped. Serve warm or cool.