Cottage Cheese Dill Bread

[jenett]

As promised, both for anne and for magentamn who asked me about it a few weeks ago, which is why I had the makings in the house already :)

This bread relies on the cottage cheese for a lot of the moisture. The version I'm posting here also has two eggs in it - the combination means the bread has quite a lot of protein in it. It makes a perfectly lovely sandwich bread, but you can also coax it into roll shapes. (It's a pretty damp dough, so more elaborate shaping is not really worth the fuss.)

Makes two loaves, or loaf + rolls, or rolls, or whatever combination you want.



Equipment
- Mixing bowl suitable for dough (6-8qt stainless is what I use.)
- Spatula (the dough starts out very damp)
- Loaf pan and/or baking sheet
- [ETA: if using a baking sheet, I recommend parchment paper. Very wet dough]
- Oven

Ingredients
- Dry yeast (3 tsp or so)
- 2 tsp sugar or honey (I use honey)
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 2 cups small curd cottage cheese
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2-3 tablespoons dried dill
- 2 tablespoons onion, or 2-3 tsp dried onion
- 1 tsp salt
- 4-4.5 cups flour
- melted butter (1-2 tbs)

Some recipes include 1/4 to 1 tsp of baking powder. Some don't. I left it out here.

Process
1) Dissolve the yeast and honey in the warm water, and let stand 5 minutes, until foamy on top.

2) Combine cottage cheese, eggs, dill, onion, salt in large mixing bowl and stir well. (Some recipes tell you to cream the cottage cheese until it's smooth. I don't bother.)

2b) Add the yeast/honey/water mix to the mixing bowl. Stir. Add flour a bit at a time to make a soft dough. This is where the silicon spatula is really handy.

3) Knead dough for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. It'll be sticky.

4) Put it in a well-oiled bowl (I put in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and use the dough to oil the bowl.) Cover with a damp cloth, let rise for 1 hour or until doubled.

5) Punch down the dough, and put it into the loaf pans and/or shape and let rise again, about 45 minutes or until doubled.

6) Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes for loaves (or until they sound hollow when tapped.) Cool on wire rack, brushing with melted butter

This time, I made one mediumish round loaf, three good size rolls, and two long skinny ones (think a baguette shape, only about 8 inches long, and proportionately wide.) The last make for really great 2-bite toast slices: slice them into 1/4 inch slices, let them stale a bit or toast them briefly in the oven (like 3-5 minutes) and then use for tuna fish, dips, etc.) They freeze well and thaw fast once sliced, so they also make great garnishes for soups or salads.

Comments

[anne]

This is perfect timing; my local cancer patient has dropped 2 lb in 2 days. We're going to start giving him half-and-half and pretending it's milk.

[jenett]

Am glad to be of help (and just wish I could be more help than recipes...)

Have you tried him on coconut milk at all? (The good kind, that has coconut cream in it?) You can do a milk tonic thing with coconut milk, cinnamon/nutmeg/cardamon in whatever combination, and a splash of vanilla extract and honey/maple syrup to sweeten. It's not as coconutty as you'd think, and coconut oil (which is naturally in the milk) has some highly beneficial and easily utilised fats in it.

[viklikesfic]

Oh wow this is awesome. Maybe I can adapt it for bread maker.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

At what point do you add the yeast/water mixture? Do you add all the ingredients in step 2 to the water, or add the water later? And is it really 2-3 tablespoons of dill?

[jenett]

You are right that I left that out! It goes in after you mix the cottage cheese/etc. (And I'm about to do that edit, so it'll be right in a second.)

And yes, I do 2-3 tbs of dill. Adjust for your dill tolerance. I can bring over some tomorrow, so you can see how it tastes, too.