J Crew: Baking Sunday: Pesto, sundried tomato and garlic braided bread

After all the holidays and traveling, I was ready to do a little Baking Sunday again. The only thing missing from this Baking Sunday was Jenny! I'm looking forward to her return. Otherwise, last night was a fun adventure in the bread making and baking world. Spaghetti Carbonara was on zee menu, so I thought bread might be complementary, as it always is. And, I'm a fan of the occasional carb overload. It all worked out for me. Also, big shout-out to my dear, Kirsten Frost, who I met this summer at Project Transformation. She is taking an artisan bread baking class for her interm! She is learning to bake different kinds of bread...all for credit. Now, people, to me, that's money well spent. What I would give to have a fun class like that! A part of her class also includes blogging her baking experiences. I highly recommend that you check it out if baking is your thing. It's so fun! See it here: http://collegiatecarbohydrates.wordpress.com/

Now, onto the bread. I found this bread recipe when I was researching Nudo olive oil back in December. I fell in love with it and couldn't wait to bake it. It's a pretty normal dough recipe (very similar to my pizza dough, so the directions will be the same at first), but it splits the bread into three sections after its rise time and calls for you to work basil pesto into one section, sundried tomatoes into another and fresh, pressed garlic into another. Then you braid the pieces together to bake them. This bread is pretty heavenly, especially hot, out of the oven with a little butter and garlic salt on top. I've adapted the recipe a bit from the original, but it's near the same. If you like pesto, you're going to love this. Enjoy!

What you'll need:

- 3 1/3 cups of bread flour
- 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 packet of fast-acting yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/3 cups of warm water
- 2 tsp basil pesto
- 2 tsp sundried tomato pesto (I used Giada's; I found it at Target)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 egg beaten, for washing

Directions:

1. In your Kitchenaid bowl, combine the bread flour, oil, yeast, salt and about a cup of the warm water.

2. Using the dough hook on your KitchenAid mixer, stir until a loose dough begins to form. Add in the remaining water as the dough begins to form. If the dough appears too dry after you add in the water, add a little bit more; if it appears too wet, sprinkle in a little bit of flour. The dough should start pulling away from the side of the bowl and begin forming into a ball after 30 seconds or so.

3. When the dough forms into a ball, gradually increase the speed of your KitchenAid to medium. The dough ball should remain intact on the dough hook. If it's not hooking, turn your mixer off and help it hook and gradually increase the speed again. This happens to me, every so often. Otherwise let the mixer knead the dough on medium speed for 8 minutes. If you need to knead by hand, turn out the ingredients on a well-floured surface and knead for at least 10 minutes by hand.

4. While the dough is kneading, prepare a floured surface for the dough to rise on. Then, prepare a damp towel to cover the dough. I normally use a spray bottle to dampen my kitchen towel.

5. After 8 minutes, using floured hands, remove the dough from the hook and set it on the counter to rise. Use some olive oil to cover the top of the dough so it doesn't dry out while it rises. After that, cover the dough with the dampened tea towel and let the it rise for one hour.

6. When the dough is finished rising, split it into three equal boules. Work basil pesto into one section, sundried tomato pesto into the other and the minced garlic into the last.

7. Roll each section out into a long sausage. Make sure the sections are even and then braid them together. Pinch the ends to secure them for baking.

8. Put the bread on a baking tray, give it a light egg wash and let it rise for 30 more minutes.

9. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350F. When the bread is finished rising, bake it for 30-35 minutes. The bread is finished when it's nice and golden and when it sounds hollow when tapped.

Enjoy the bread with some melty butter and garlic salt. Yum, yum!

Guys, guess what? I was more intentional about taking pictures this time! Yahoo. I hope these are helpful!

Normally, I use homemade pesto, but basil is almost impossible to find around here in the winter, so Mezzeta's did the trick! The original recipe calls for regular sundried tomatoes, but I found this pesto by Giada at Target and thought it would be more delicious. Also, pesto freezes really well, so if you don't have immediate plans for it, freeze it.