Pain Pesto

Your probably wondering what that huge hunk of a loaf of bread is. The answer is, the most delicious bread I've made in recent memory! That there is a white bread with a pesto filling sprinkled with some olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper to finish it. Yu-um. And a meal all in itself with a salad on the side. This bread is super easy to make, especially if you use store bought pesto as I did, but feel free to make your own. This recipe comes from the wonderful Marcy Goldman (surprise, surprise!) and once again she did not let me down.  I made the dough in the mixer (it is spoiling me!) and it comes together extremely quickly, especially in this Israeli heat. You can also fill this with olive tapenade or sun-dried tomato pesto, which is next on my list as I haven't been able to get it off my brain since I made this. There really isn't much more to add about this delicious bread except to say, make it- it's perfectly appropriate for summer.

Pain Pesto
from A Passion for Baking

Dough:
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 tbsp rapid rise yeast (if it's really hot in your kitchen, feel free to scale it back to slow down the rise)
4 cups, approximately, bread flour
1/3 cup olive oil
5 tsp sugar
2 3/4 tsp salt

Filling:
1 (10 ounce) jar pesto

Finishing Touches:
olive oil
salt
pepper
garlic powder

To make the dough, place all the dough ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix on low-medium for 6-8 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour as needed. Remove the dough hook, grease the top of the dough and allow to rise until almost doubled in size. The amount of time it will take depends on the temperature of your kitchen.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently deflate. Roll the dough out into a 20x20 rectangle. If the dough resists, let it rest for a few minutes before trying again.

Spread pesto onto the dough taking care to leave a border unpesto-ed. Carefully roll up jelly roll style.

Place in an S shape on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet.

Drizzle with olive oil and top with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cover and allow to rise about an hour, or until puffy. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350.

Bake the bread about 35-45 minutes until it is well browned. Cool on wire rack. Enjoy!