Cooks Joy

After all the festival recipes I certainly needed a change. I have always been fascinated by bundt cakes and purchased the pan. I was not able to narrow down any recipe and with all the festival recipes I did not find time to bake and the poor pan was tucked away neatly in the cabinet. So when I saw this pull-apart bread made using a bundt pan I was simply carried away as it was a win-win situation for me. I get to bake my favorite bread and also use the pan. No worries if you don’t have a bundt pan, you can arrange the balls in any baking pan. In the end all which matters is the taste and not the shape of pan used right?

It was very simple to make and tasted great. Feel free to experiment with the ingredients used in the garlic butter mixture. You can jazz it up with cumin, dry herbs, etc. My kids loved it and we had few leftovers which were promptly finished the next day. Off to the recipe.

Ingredients

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1.5 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups barely warm water
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

For the butter mixture to dip the balls
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 tsp chilly flakes

References
Recipe Source : The Pastry Chef

Notes
1. Feel free to use any herb of choice. The original recipe called for parsley flakes.
2. If using active dry yeast, proof it first using warm water and sugar. Then add that mixture to the bread flour.
3. All purpose flour can be used, but bread flour does make a difference.

Method
Take bread flour in a bowl.

Add instant yeast and mix well.

Add oil.

Add salt and mix well.

Using water form a dough.

See how crumbly it looks. Do not add more water. Start kneading.

After a couple of minutes of kneading.

See how soft it looks after about 10 minutes of kneading. Get those muscles to work . Cover and place in a warm place. I normally turn the oven light on and place it inside.

After about 2 hours, see how much it has risen. Punch it down.

Meanwhile melt the butter in a bowl.

Add garlic. I used the microplane grater to grate the garlic. You can also mince it.

Add cilantro and chilli flakes.

Mix well.

Pinch a small piece of dough and roll it in the butter mixture.

Place the dipped balls in a bundt pan forming a single layer. Feel free to use any pan.

Sprinkle some parmesan cheese over it.

Place more balls as another layer.

Add some parmesan cheese to the top. Place in a warm place for about 1/2 an hour for it to rise again.

It has risen beautifully and has filled up all the gaps. Bake in a 350F oven for 25 – 30 minutes until the bread turns brown. This time varies from oven to oven and for me it took around 40 minutes. I also broiled for a couple of minutes finally to get a nice brown color on top.

See how pretty it looks.

Want a bite? No one cared about the dip or sauce. Most of the pieces were gone in an hour.

Enjoy!

Sending it to YeastSpotting and Kalyani’s Global Food Festival.