Here I am Kitchen of the Month, we’re on a cross country road trip and the mission today was to spread some of Dad’s ashes.  We drove like crazy yesterday, way past when we should have stopped so our time would work today to spread those ashes and still make it to friends house in St. Louis! We had to stop where there was nearly no choice in motels … and ours had no internet.  Now we’re on great internet.

Sorry this has taken so late to post. 

I believe we are imprinted to be attracted to little things, babies perhaps being a prime example; it’s probably why our species survived in the first place. We’re attracted to and attach to the small and helpless.  Is a bun, a small bread helpless? I don’t really know.  I do know I’m really attracted to small breads these days and this particular one I’ve found so many connecting shaping methods that I’m helpless to not bake it.

In my mind, however this is baked it should be a great snack bread or picnic sandwich bread or brunch bread or dinner with a salad bread or … you tell me.

I made the full recipe and we ate it all, reheating each time. Worked beautifully for breakfast lunch dinner and snack.  Then we were about to travel … so I made a half recipe.  I made smaller rolls.  When I ran out of the feta spinach and mint filling, I used just golden raisins.  Gorn was wild for the raisins and put honey on each bite!

Double it, half it, reshape it.  Let’s see just how wild this one can go.  You really want to bake this one. Seriously, this was perfectly delightful.

My first bake was rather dry because I skipped the egg and butter with the mint, basil and feta.  My second bake was more moist and we liked that better.  But, when I bake again I’ll just use the egg, and no butter; butter was just overkill.

DOUGH
450 grams whole grain sprouted red wheat and whole grain spelt flours, 3 2/3 cups
2 grams instant yeast, 1 1/8 teaspoons; 9 grams/0.3 oz fresh yeast
250 grams milk, warm to room temp, 1 cup
9 grams salt, 2 1/4 teaspoons
100 grams butter, 6 1/2 tablespoons
FILLING
1  egg
250  grams feta cheese crumbled, 8 ounces
50 grams butter melted and cooled, 3 tablespoons (very optional)
paprika for garnish, optional
spinach, mint, basil, garlic, optional
GLAZE
1 egg
1 teaspoon water
PAN
the choice is yours: I used a pie plate for my twist pull apart, 12×12 cm/  4.5×4.5 inches; at least 5cm/2inchs deep, greased and lined

1. Put the flour and yeast into a bowl and give it a wish to mix.  Make a well or do like I did and play with your food, make a star well!  Pour on the milk. Close the well by flicking flour on the surface of the milk and allow to rest for 1 hour.

Add the salt and gather everything into a ball in the bowl.  Turn it out on the counter and knead for 10 minutes.  Add the butter and knead for another 10 minutes.  Pop the dough back in the bowl, cover and allow to rest for 2 hours.

Mix the egg together with the herbs, spinach and feta cheese in a bowl.  Melt the butter and allow to cool.

Pull the dough out of the bowl onto an un-floured counter.  Un-floured so that rolling the dough balls gets traction.

2. SHAPING

Google this bread and you will find MANY different shapes.

Shape the dough into a tight sausage.
Cut into 9 equal pieces.  
Lightly flour the top of each piece (I did not do this) and allow to rest for 15 minutes under a dry tea towel (I placed mine under a shower cap).
SHAPE RECTANGLE OR CIRCLE:
Take out one piece and on the counter lightly floured, roll it into a rectangle or circle about 10x10cm/4×4 inches for rectangle or square pan or to fit a pie pan. 
Brush it with melted butter.
Take out another piece, roll it into the same size as before, place it on the first piece and brush it with melted butter.
Take out a third piece, roll it into a rectangle the same size as before and place it on the stack.  DON”T brush it.

SHAPE INTO PULL APART ROLLS:

Next time I will divide into 16 balls because we enjoyed the rolls smaller.

3. Using a rolling pin, roll the stack of dough into a rectangle the size of your baking pan and lift it up (you can roll it around your rolling pin if that is easier) and place it in the prepared baking pan.

Brush it with melted butter and spread over half the feta cheese mixture and any optional toppings.
Repeat with the next 3 pieces of dough, and place that stack on top of the first stack.  Brush this with melted butter and spread it with the remaining half of the feta cheese mixture and any optional toppings.

Repeat with the final 3 pieces of dough, and place the stack on top of the dough in the pan.

4. With your hands, push down all around the outside edge of the stack of dough – between the dough and the pan – so that you seal in the cheese.  Really pull down the very top layer of the bread and stick it well on or even under the rest of the dough.

5. Cover with whatever you normally use and allow to rest for an hour.

6. PREHEAT OVEN TO 230°C (450°F) GAS 8

Before baking, brush the top of the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle some paprika on it if you like.  I used smoky paprika.  I sprinkled from the spice jar but if I’d had a small sifter to use that would have given me a more even distribution. I forgot the paprika the first time. I baked a second half recipe for traveling and we really liked the paprika.
Pop the pan in the preheated oven and immediately turn the oven down to 200°C (400°F) Gas 6.Bake for 35 minutes. Mine took 42 minutes because I used all whole grain flour.7. Remove from the oven.
Transfer carefully to a wire rack(inverting it onto a wire rack works all) and allow it to cool down a bit. When it is still warm (not hot), cut it into squares and eat it up alongside a salad or some soup for a wonderful. tasty meal.