The middle and end of the month are usually slated for my ABin5/ HBin5 posts. This month I didn’t do a middle of the month post because I just couldn’t find the time to bake the breads on the schedule. As it happens, I didn’t manage to bake the breads scheduled for the end of this month either.
Life is full of unexpected twists and turns, and lets just say that this means that I have my hands full at this point in time. It also means that I have so many things I want to do but unable to always do them according to plan.
So this month, this ABin5/ HBin5 post is going to be about a couple of breads most others in the group have already made over the last month, but I managed to get around to just now! Hopefully by the middle of next month, I will have caught up with the rest of my bread baking friends.
There were a couple of breads, one from this mid-month braid (the pine nut pesto bread) and one from last month (chocolate espresso bread) that I did want to make.
I did alter both the recipes a bit, mostly the type and quantity of flours used. HBin5 emphasizes healthier bread through the use of non-refined flours. The fact of the matter is that most healthy breads aren’t very popular in our home, so there isn’t much point in spending time, effort and ingredients on something no one wants to eat.
Pesto-Pine Nut Bread : You might have noticed the HBin5 bread is called Pine Nut-Pesto Bread while I called mine Pesto-Pine Nut Bread. This is not about semantics, but because I made my pesto with walnuts.
When I made my pesto a couple of weeks back, I didn’t have any pine nuts and so made it with walnuts. A few days later I found a shop in town that sells pine nuts and bought some. So my bread has walnut pesto and pine nuts in it.
I worked with half the original recipe, but used only whole wheat and all purpose flours. Spelt and wheat gluten aren’t available in stores here. I reduced the garlic in the recipe to 1/2 tsp (we prefer garlic to faintly hover in the background as a flavour) and did not mix in the pine nuts in the dough.
I had seen and bookmarked a pesto bread recipe that Chuck of Cooking Bread made sometime back. He had detailed a very interesting and unusual way of filling and shaping the pesto bread, and that’s what I did here.
Here’s my adapted version of the HBin5 bread and Chuck‘s bread shaping method. The pesto bread was good. If you like pesto, then you will definitely like this bread. And I personally liked the idea of layering the pesto in the bread rather than mixing it up in the dough. Not only did it make for a very attractive looking bread, it was also nice to be able to taste the pesto in it.
Pesto-Pine Nut Bread & Chocolate-Coffee Bread Cupcakes!
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 tsps salt
- 1 cup water
- xbd tsp garlic paste
For filling:
- 1/4 cup walnut pesto (recipe follows)
- 1/4 cup pine nuts lightly toasted
- 2 to 3 tbsps parmesan cheese About grated
Instructions
- To make walnut pesto (this recipe is from Ritu Dalmiau2019s Italian Khana).
- Put 150gm basil leaves, 2 cloves peeled garlic and 50 gm walnuts in a food processor and process till you get a smooth paste.With the processor running, add about 25 ml olive oil in a slow and steady stream.
- Stop the machine and add 75 gm freshly grated parmesan and process till the cheese is absorbed. Slowly add another 25 ml of olive oil and process till the pesto is creamy. Season with salt and pepper.
- To make the bread : Mix all the ingredients for the dough together. Use a bit more (be judicious) flour if the dough looks very wet. The dough should be moist but should not stick to your hands. Put the dough in a container and cover with plastic wrap or lid, but not tightly. Allow dough to rise for about 2 hours.
- After 2 hours of rising, put dough into the refrigerator to chill for at least 3 hours for easy handling. The dough can be kept refrigerated for up to a week. I refrigerated my dough overnight and baked the bread next morning.
- When ready to bake, take the dough out and shape the dough into an oval. Lightly dust your work surface with flour and roll the dough out into a rough rectangle about 1/4u201d thick.
- Spread the pesto on the rectangle leaving a margin on the sides. Go a bit easy on the pesto or it can be over powering! Sprinkle the pesto nuts evenly over this and then the parmesan cheese.
- Fold the sides of the rectangle inwards a bit and then roll the dough with the filling, in jelly roll style. Pinch the dough to make sure it has sealed well.
- Now carefully, cut the rolled bread dough into 2 equal halves, lengthwise, with a sharp knife. Twist both halves together like a rope, ensuring the filled sides show on the outside. Place the twisted dough in a greased loaf tin and let it rise for about 1 1/2 hours.
- Bake the bread at 180C (350F) for about 30 to 35 minutes till done. Unmould and cool on a rack. Wait till the bread has cooled completely before slicing.
Notes
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
Yum! Your Pesto Pine Nut Bread looks great! I’ll have to try that version. I loved this bread! The chocolate-coffee bread cupcakes look good too! I like that idea!
A, both of them looks good! LOve the swirl in your pesto bread.Btw,I think you have a double copied and pasted the post. It appears twice, one below the other.
Till now i have never made savoury bread, I should make once one.love the choco muffin too.
Love the chocolate -coffee bread-muffin…Nice job aparna..
Pesto bread looks amazing I love the swirls in the bread it must taste awesome.The cup cakes are so cute also.
wow…you r a wiz in baking
wow….what a wondeful recipe!!!….u have mastered in artisan breads now….loved the pesto recipe…thanks for sharing that….by the way as ria has mentioned u had put the recipe for the bread twice….check it out.
Love the swirls..those cupcakes look so pretty!!Your post is appearing one after the other..in the same page.
Love both the breads.Two days back,I tried the Abin5 method in a flatbread and it was amazing -no kneading at all.Only the rising time was more.Love walnut pesto and the variations you have tried.The cupcakes are a must try.Hey,the post is being repeated do something.
Thanks for pointing out the problem. Think I tweaked the HTML of my blog template and caused the problem!Its been taken care of (I think). Please let me know if there’s still a problem.
love the pesto bread… a must try soon 🙂
am always amazed at how you create perfect breads each time. looks lovely and sure gonna taste great too.
Aparna, your orange tian(s), looks fabulous!! Love the arrangements of the orange segments!! YUM! 🙂
Oh wow! your pesto pine nut bread is beautiful! And the cupcakes sound wonderful
Aparna loved the pesto bread..the swirls look very tempting..wish I could have a slice of it! 🙂
I love pesto. I am definitely going to try this one. Looks like it is a no egg version of bread. A must try recipe. Thanks.
oh i am seriously liking this bread! it’s just the perfect thing for a bbq party – brilliant aparna!
really love the swirling look. choco espresso.. oh yum for me.
I absolutely love the cupcake idea. Have a great Easter!
Thanks so much for posting the link to Chuck’s filling, rolling and braiding technique..so cool! I can’t wait to try it! So happy you enjoyed the Espresso Bread, we have that recipe again in a few weeks and it sounds so good!
I love the beautiful way that you shaped your pesto loaf. I really liked this bread, but I used my homemade pesto and it is quite a bit stonger in flavor than store bought pesto. Your ideas for the espresso chocolate bread are nice too. I didn’t try this one but your cupcakes are beautiful.
What a beautiful way to do the pesto- It looks positively delightful. Thanks for sharing that link!
These 2 recipes are great. I love pesto and this pesto pine-nut bread is definitely a keeper recipe. By the way, I really enjoy the photos of the bread that highlight the texture, beautiful….. and photo of the cupcakes with the scattering chocolate chips is simply stunning 🙂 Great job!Sawadee from bangkok,Kris
Beautiful pictures and the best looking pesto bread I have ever seen. I will use this method on a future bread. Love, love, love it
How beautiful your Pesto Pine Nut Bread is! I will have to check out that link – thank you!I didn’t really care for the chocolate bread that much but your muffins certainly turned out nicely.
Both look so good, but those cupcakes REALLY look good, especially with the idea of slipping some jam or Nutella in there!
I love the pesto “swirl” in your bread. It looks so tasty! The chocolate bread was a lot of fun to make. I liked it even though it wasn’t very sweet.
Your pesto bread is just beautiful, I love the swirl- a perfect treatment. The cupcakes aren’t on my list either, but you have given me something to think about- they are darling they way you have them in the picture.
I love pesto…but not pine nuts! I use flaked almonds instead. The bread looks awesome………..
The bread sounds delicious and I love the way you shaped it.The cupcakes sound intriguing and filling them with nutella and a strawberry totally bought me!
Loved that braiding and shaping technique, thanks for the link! Your pesto bread looks great.
Both of them look great, I liked those lines in those bread peeping though, good click too
I love the way you made the pine nut bread – swirled almost like a cinnamon roll! That is lovey and so visually appealing. I bet it tasted great!
Great post on these breads. I love the way your pesto bread came out! Thanks for the link to Chuck’s site. I’ve bookmarked it because the loaf reminds me of babka and I think I will try to make a loaf of babka like this! Great job on the cupcakes also!
Thanks everyone. Yes, Chuck does make some very, very good bread.Hope you all had a great Easter weekend.
What a grate product pine nuts are, a source for pine nuts or pignoli nuts there are American organic grown they are superb in-shell raw or shelled raw there web sight is http://www.wholesalepinenuts.com a simple comment to let you know you don’t have to buy importer pine nuts any more. Mike