Photo courtesy of Tamara Palmer at SF Weekly
Team BasilBrain brought it fo realz with their sass ‘n class….we didn’t see anyone else drinking beer out of martini glasses! Their Fabulously Flawless French Herb Bread was stuffed to the gills with savory additions like garlic, onion, parsley, and (DUH) butter! This flavor-packed crowd favorite treat had people coming back for seconds and thirds! You can read about their first hand experience on the BasilBrain blog and continue reading for recipe…
Team Basil Brain
FABULOUSLY FLAWLESS FRENCH HERB BREAD
INGREDIENTS
Bread Dough:
1 Tbs active dry yeast
2 Tbs white sugar
1 tsp salt
4-5 cups flour
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup water
3 Tbs white vinegar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
Savory Filling:
1/2-1 cup minced red onion (depends on how oniony you like things—I am of the philosophy that the more onion, the more delicious)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/4 cup butter
DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, mix the sugar, yeast, salt, vinegar, and 2 cups of the flour. In a small saucepan, combine the milk, water & butter until butter is melted & mixture is steaming. Take milk mixture and stir into the flour mix in the large bowl. Stir until thoroughly mixed, when you should have a soft, wet mixture. Begin to stir in another 2 cups flour to form a soft, slightly sticky dough. Somewhere around here is where I start using my hands, instead of a wooden spoon, to mix in the flour.
Turn out the dough onto a floured surface; knead for fifteen minutes. Add another cup of flour while kneading. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp kitchen towel, and let it rise for two hours (approximately! this depends on how warm your house is during the winter—the colder it is, the longer you should let it rise).
Punch down the dough, and roll out onto a floured surface. Create a flat rectangle of dough that is about half an inch thick. In the case of the competition, I turned one big loaf into several small loaves so I could create better bite size servings (a strategy that only kind of worked), so I created numerous small rectangles. Set this aside for a moment to create the savory filling.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a small pan, melt the butter, and sauté the onions, garlic & parsley. Take this mixture and spread it evenly across the dough rectangle. Then roll up the rectangle (either way works, although I prefer to roll the long side of the rectangle) tightly. It’s important to get it as tightly rolled as possible, or the pieces may fall apart when you cut it later (which they may anyway, but it’s worse if there is too much air between the layers). Place on a greased pan with the seam side down, and use an egg wash to coat the outside of the loaf. Pop it into the oven—it usually takes about 35-45 minutes to bake. The loaf is done when the outside is a golden brown.
Lastly, melt a little bit of extra butter & chop some extra parsley to spread on top of the warm bread. Voila! You’ve got yourself some Fabulously Flawless French Herb Bread!