I just finished my first loaf of Casatiello from P. Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice.  While I was working with it I got the idea that it would make a great herb bread, adding herbs to the cheese; perhaps even something like spinach in the mix too.

Cheese and herbs run well alongside one another so this bread is a natural for experimenting with herbs in the equation.

I don't have the exact recipe at hand, but I can tell you that a cheddar chive sourdough that I recently made turned out quite excellent.  I know that t it had 3.25 oz grated sharp cheddar and 20 grams fresh chopped chives per 500 g flour.  The taste of both ingredients was on the milder side, but very pleasant.  You may find it very much to your liking.

Out of the box? Hmm. Make a dough containing some olive oil, like a ciabatta or fougasse, or whatever you like. Split the batch in half. In half, add straight olive oil. In the other, add olive oil in which you have pureed your fresh herbs, preferably bright green ones like basil and so on. Then put the two doughs together and marble them, like in a boule with a centered spiral.

You can use chives in place of onions. Why not try an onion bread recipe with chives.

--Pamela

Awhile back there was a posting for "Blueberry Cream Cheese Braid". A search will bring it up quickly.  Floyd had suggested that a savoury variation of that formula might be very nice using a less sweet dough.  Mushrooms, cheese, sage and rosemary come to my mind for a filling.  I'm making myself hungry...might have to try it myself.

Karen

is not out of the box, but the old fashion cottage cheese onion dill bread.  I use dried onion (powder) and fresh dill for the aroma and the cottage cheese really makes the crumb nice and soft.  That's our family favorite herb bread.  I even make it into sandwich loaves so my husband can use them for lunch.

Allrecipes.com for bread machine but I modified it to use with my sourdough starter in the oven.  I also made a few changes.  Instead of dill seeds I used fresh dill weeds.  I use sourdough so I didn't have to use any yeast but the orginal recipe called for 1-1/2 tablespoons that's way too much.  I would say maybe 2 tsp more like it.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cottage-Dill-Bread/Detail.aspx

I'm going to try a sourdough version of the cottage cheese dill bread with chives. My wife, Yvonne, claimed the oven today to make sandwich bread we've been enjoying for years: buttermilk white bread, prepared in the dough cycled bread machine,  twice proofed, slowly, and finished in the oven. On alternate weeks she makes a whole wheat variation. Yields three loaves, one routinely goes to a neighbor, the other two are our week's "daily" bread.

The past couple of months I've been obsessing over improving my own baking skills, so we've been eating sourdoughs, foccacias, ciabattas, and poolish initiated baguettes. All fine, but lately we've begun to miss our proven basic bread.

So, it will be next week before I try the cottage dill.

David G.

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The herbs, waiting

I, too, had a abundance of fresh herbs and wanted to incorporate them into some bread. I made my favorite Italian bread recipe and added some roasted garlic I had made a couple of days prior, and FRESH Greek Oregano, French Thyme, rosemary and basil... It was wonderful and I got raves from everyone. I also regularly make dill rye bread that is very tangy and yummy... Just a couple of ideas.. I want to try something with sage too, so if anyone has any ideas........

I've enjoyed and sold many of these at our local farmer's market for many years:

1. Black Olive and Oregano - buzz up some fresh oregano in a food processor with some Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and add a heaping tablespoon per pound of flour.
2. Lemon-Dill - Chop up fresh, young, tender dill (fresher is better, as it is a little sweeter) and add about two tablespoons along with the zest of one lemon per pound of flour.
3. Pesto Bread - add about two tablespoons per pound of flour (or more or less to taste) to your favourite white bread.
4. Rosemary and Walnut - from Carol Field, if memory serves - brushed with egg and sprinkled with coarse salt before baking - big crowd pleaser.
5. Buttermilk and Chive - substitute half to all of your liquid with buttermilk (makes a tender crumb) and pile in the chives - garlic chives are good here, too.
6. Sundried Tomato-Chipotle-Cilantro - a taste of the Southwest - buzz up lots of cilantro (coriander) with a couple of chipotles-in-adobe sauce.  Use a good four tablespoons of this mix per pound of flour to be able to taste the cilantro.
7. Sweet Marjoram and Goat Cheese - better as a topping on Foccacia or Pizza -buzz up marjoram in Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, bake flatbread with goat cheese on top and then brush with herb-infused oil as it comes out of the oven.
8. Caramelized Red Onion and Sage - about one red onion (cooked down almost to a jammy consistency) and about two tablespoons of chopped sage per pound of flour.
9. Potato and Chive - use real potatoes (cook them in unsalted water, mash them and add them to your dough mix - about one potato per pound of flour - careful to hold back some liquid, as the potatoes hold extra from the cooking process) with lots of chopped chives.
10. Last, but not least, one from so long ago I barely remember all if it.  It was a white dough (could also be sourdough) with chunks of cheddar cheese, pitted kalamata olives, diced and sauteed red & yellow sweet peppers, and lots of chopped fresh thyme (lemon-thyme could also be used).

My herb garden is still a couple of weeks away, but thanks for the trip down memory lane.  I'll need to get busy again soon.

Cheers!