Saturday, October 10, 2015

District 7: Garlic Herb Cheesy Pull-Apart Bread.

(Want to start with District 1?)

Home of amusingly belligerent victor-turned-ally Johanna Mason, District 7's primary industry is lumber.  Its bread is yet another left un-discussed by Suzanne Collins in the trilogy, so I chose this delicious pull-apart bread--because herbs are like leaves, which are like trees, right? ;-)

District 7: Garlic Herb Cheesy Pull-Apart Bread.

This bread is based on this recipe.

You'll need:
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 Tbsp dried yeast granules
  • 1/2 Tbsp salt
  • 1/2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 1/3 cups water, room temperature
  • 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/4 cup herbs, chopped (I used basil)
  • 2 Tbsp butter, softened or room temperature
  • 8 oz. shredded cheese (I used an Italian blend)


In your mixing bowl, combine the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar:


Add half the water; mix.  Slowly add the rest of the water while mixing:


You should end up with a nice ball of dough:


Add the olive oil:


If you're kneading it by hand, you may want to move the dough to a floured surface before adding the olive oil.  Knead, or mix by stand mixer (if you're cheating like me), until the dough is smooth and elastic:


Leave the ball of dough in your bowl:


Cover, and let rise about an hour to an hour and a half (until the dough doubles in size):


Use that time while you're waiting to prep your mix-ins--chop those herbs and mince that garlic:


Shred that cheese, too, unless you went the easy route like I did and bought a bag pre-shredded.

So, a word on the herbs: the original recipe called for considerably more herbs than I ended up using.  Due to a variety of unfortunate circumstances that prevented me from buying anything but basil, and then kept me from having time to make the bread until bits of the basil had begun to look, erm, questionable...I ended up with less usable herbs than I would have liked.  I'd recommend using at least a quarter cup, up to a full cup, of the herbs of your choice.  My scant 1/8 cup of basil looks rather sad, and sparse on the finished product....


Good thing I like garlic and cheese better than I like herbs anyway. :-)

Once the dough has doubled in size:


...punch it down:


On a flat work surface, roll out the dough in a large rectangle, to about 1/4" thickness:


My rectangle ended up being about 14" x 17", to give you an idea of the size.  Since you'll be cutting the dough into squares, you want to try to keep the edges as straight as possible--I found that rolling the edges toward the corners helped to keep a regular shape.

Next, spread the butter evenly over the dough:


Sprinkle evenly with garlic:


...and herbs:


Then add an even layer of cheese, going right up to the edges:


Take a look at the loaf tins you'll be baking in, and slice the dough into squares that approximately match the height and width of your tin:


Grease your tins (bottom and sides), then, one at a time, turn it on its end and prop it up by your work surface.  Stack the squares in the tin:


Top with the cheese that inevitably fell off of your squares as you tried to stack them:


You'll fill two loaf tins:


Cover them and let them sit another 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven, and bake at 375*F for 40-50 minutes:


Since I had two loaves, I played with the time a bit--the original recipe called for a 55-minute bake time, but they looked done ("golden brown") long before then, so I took one out at the 42-minute mark and left the other in for the full time:

Left: 55 minutes.  Right: 42 minutes.

Both were fully cooked through and unburnt, but I liked the under-baked one better of the two.  I felt like the other one was a bit overcooked.

Let the loaves rest in the tins for another ten minutes, then remove to serve warm:

Left: 55 minutes.  Right: 42 minutes.

Some of the pieces "pull apart" more easily than others, but each bite has the same garlicky, cheesy, slightly-basil-ly (use more than I did!) goodness:


But don't just take my word for it:


This one was definitely Wil-approved. :-)


For your cut-and-paste convenience:

Garlic Herb Cheesy Pull-Apart Bread
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 Tbsp dried yeast granules
  • 1/2 Tbsp salt
  • 1/2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 1/3 cups water, room temperature
  • 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/4 cup herbs, chopped (I used basil)
  • 2 Tbsp butter, softened or room temperature
  • 8 oz. shredded cheese (I used an Italian blend)
  1. Mix flour, yeast, salt, and sugar.  Add half the water; mix, slowly adding rest of water.
  2. Add olive oil; mix until dough is smooth and elastic.
  3. Cover dough and let rise 1-1 1/2 hours, until doubled in size.
  4. Punch down.  Roll out into large rectangle, to about 1/4" thickness.
  5. Spread with butter; sprinkle evenly with garlic and herbs; layer with cheese, all the way to edges.
  6. Cut into squares, to fit loaf tins.
  7. Grease tins.  One at a time, turn tin on its end; stack squares inside to fill tin.  Top with any loose cheese.  Cover, and let sit for 30 minutes.
  8. Bake at 375*F for 40-50 minutes.  Remove from oven and let rest ten minutes in tins before removing to serve warm.
Easter Eggs

Can you find this week's Easter eggs (references to other fandoms) in the main photo?


There are two this week!  Let me know in the comments if you've caught them. :-)

Ready for the reveal from last week?


If you're a Browncoat, the first one was easy--the "hovercraft" was actually Serenity from Joss Whedon's "Firefly" (in fact, the staging was specifically a reference to the second episode, "Train Job").  The second was a little harder to spot--the syringe at the bottom of the photo is labelled "Prozium", which was the name of the emotion-suppressing drug used in the film Equilibrium (underrated sci-fi film starring Christian Bale, which happens to have one of my two all-time favorite fight sequences--the other is River in the bar in Serenity).  I figured morphlings (District 6 is known for widespread morphling addiction) would be just as likely to reuse needles as drug addicts in our current world. :-/

Let me know in the comments if you catch the Easter eggs this week, or if you try this District 7 bread!  As always, may the odds be ever in your favor! :-)

(Ready for District 8?)

6 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks! It was pretty good, but it didn't quite top the District 5 Pizza Bread--all the cheesy breads are definitely my favorites! :-)

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  2. I see Bad Wolf ;) But can't spot the other one. I want to try the bread, though.

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    Replies
    1. Good catch! :-) I'll post the reveal with the other one when I make District 8 bread...hope to get it up next week, so you'll find out then! ;-)

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  3. Bad Wolf for Doctor Who, and there is a wand between the stacked logs, I assume from Harry Potter...

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    Replies
    1. Very good! My hubby didn't think anyone would notice the wand, but I insisted that SOMEONE out there could catch it! ;-)

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