Stuffed Bread
My Late mother-in-law used to make something the family called "stuffed bread". It was just frozen bread dough from the store, thawed, stuffed with sausage and cheese, and baked. Last night I was charged with the task of making Stuffed Bread but with homemade bread. I decided to use the recipe for Italian Bread, because I have made it a couple of times before and found it to be delicious.
So I followed the direction in making the bread, and as it did it's two hour rise I cooked up three sausage fillings (one hot, one sweet, and one vegetarian) and got my cheese ready. I punched the bread down, let it rest for another 30 minutes, then divided it into three and ran into a little trouble. My instructions on the actual stuffing of stuffed bread were not what you might call explicit. I decided to try patting the dough into a rectangular(ish) shape, put filling on one end, and then roll the dough up starting at the filling end into a log shape. Then rest for 20 minutes, a final shaping, about an hour for the dough to double, and then the bake. (okay, so it didnt work quite that well; I realized that my oven was too small to fit all three loaves and had to bake one loaf first, and then the other two, so one was just about right and the other two were slightly overproofed when put into the oven, but they were all tasty and I was pleasantly suprised at how nice even the overproofed ones turned out.)
The only real problem I had was with the filling. With two of the loaves, the filling ended up, atleast at one end, right at the surface of the dough. It even broke through at one point on one of the loaves. The third one was a little better but the filling was still unevenly distributed and I would have liked to have fit a little more in it but dont know if I could with my current technique.
So my question is this: How might I better go about stuffing this bread?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
fem
Sounds delicious.
Idea one: heap everything in the center(ish) part of the dough and pull the dough around it to seal and bake on the seam. You will have a solid filling inside the dough that way.
Idea two: Spread the filling in as thick a layer as you'd like all over the surface, leaving about 1/2 to 1" around all the edges. Then start at one end and roll the whole thing like a jelly-roll, seal the ends and again, bake seam-side down.
The first method might have the breaking through problem, so the dough would need to be thicker. The second method spreads the filling throughout, but the thicker it is, the more it works like a filling and not just a swirl. I use this one often for our version of calzones, which sounds a lot like what you are making. I use pizza dough.
I hope this helps.
Marni
Thank you for these ideas. Despite the problems, the bread was a hit, so I will probably be making it again soon and will try these different methods.
fem
very thinly rolled pizza dough, roughly 1/8 inch thick, stretched to huge proportions, which is then layered with homemade tomato sauce and piled with mozzarella cheese, Italian sausage and spices. This is then tightly rolled into a 1" by 4" wide pizza loaf and then baked in an oven. The result is a golden brown, deliciously cheesy, peppery, tomatoey, meaty treat
You can also take very thinly sliced turkey, Italian salami, or any thinly sliced deli meat and layer in on the dough along with marinated peppers, too. I brush the crust with sesame seeds and poppy seeds, too. I use an egg white wash first, layer the seeds, then with a pastry brush I add more egg white and pat with the brush, this assures the sesame seeds will stay put. Meant to say to add sliced provolone in addition to the deli meat..
These all sound delicious. I will have to expiriment until I find my own Stuffed Bread. Until then, I don't think anyone will mind eating the practice. Thanks for all the ideas!
fem
I just made some of this tonight for the first time and when I split my dough to form it (it makes two loaves) I split one "loaf" in two and flattened one half, layered it with the stuffing, then put the second half on top and tucked the edges under. I did it in a round and it worked well. The other I put the fillings in then rolled it up like a jelly roll and tucked the ends in and baked it seam side down. I didn't have any leaks and it was a hit!