Braided Bread with Sun Dried Tomato Walnut Pesto Filling (vegan)
Surprise your guests or family with this stunning braided bread with a sun dried tomato walnut pesto filling. Almost a bit like Pizza in Bread Form, this is an amazing appetizer or starter and people will love it. Easier to make than you think and 100% plantbased.
Servings Prep Time
2breads 35minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
45minutes 60minutes
Servings Prep Time
2breads 35minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
45minutes 60minutes
Ingredients
Sundried Tomato Pesto with Walnuts
Braided Breads
Instructions
Sundried Tomato Pesto with Walnuts
  1. If you use the dry sundried tomatoes (not the ones in oil) then put them in a bowl and soak them for 10 minutes in hot water. If you use the ones in oil, you can put them right away in the food processor.
  2. Put all ingredients in a food processor and mix until you get a crumbly, pesto-like consistency. If it’s too dry, just add more oil. Don’t make it too runny, just use as much oil as needed. For the pesto bread it is ideal to have a rather “dry” pesto, so it will stay in the dough while braiding and baking the bread.
Braided Breads
  1. Leave the yeast with the maple syrup in a cup and set aside.
  2. Mix in a big bowl the flour with the salt.
  3. In a saucepan mix the plantbased milk and olive oil and warm it up (not too hot, otherwise the yeast will be dead ?).
  4. Add the yeast to the warm oil-milk mix and stir well.
  5. Add to the flour and mix everything together and knead during 8-10 minutes until a smooth dough forms. If it’s too dry, add a bit of water, is it too sticky, add more flour.
  6. Put the dough back into the bowl and cover with a wet kitchen cloth.
  7. Let ferment for about 1 hour.
  8. Take the dough out of the bowl and cut into 4 equal parts.
  9. Using a rolling pin, roll one part into a rectangle, aprox. 30 x 50 cm.
  10. Take 1-2 tbsp of the pesto and spread it on the rectangle.
  11. Then start rolling it up from the long side and make a roll.
  12. Repeat with the 3 other parts.
  13. Then, take two of the rolls and form the braid (see my IG stories highlight how to do the braids, see below in notes, I’ve attached the link). Repeat with the other 2 rolls, so you get 2 braided breads in total.
  14. Bake at 210ºC during 40 min. I put the bread into the cold oven, so it will raise a few minutes more until the oven reaches the temperature. In order to check if the breads are cooked through, knock on them and if you get a hollow sound, then it’s ok to take out.
Recipe Notes

For the braiding technique please see the stories highlight “Zopf Swiss braided bread” on my IG account @fabs_good_food.

The breads, once baked, can be frozen without any problem. You can either freeze them whole, or cut into slices.