Another Braided Bread on my Blog
This stunning Braided Bread with Turmeric Cashew Pesto Filling will suprise your next guests or family with its eye catching yellow colored filling. But of course there is not used one drop of artficial coloring in this recipe. All the color comes naturally from a very powerful root called Turmeric. Turmeric is the spice that gives Curry its yellow color. It’s used in India as a spice and medicinal herb for thousands of years. In the past few years science backed up what the Indians have known for a long time before (like with many other things) that turmeric does really contain compounds with medicinal properties, and they are called curcuminoids. The most important substance of these curcuminoids is called curcumin.
Curcumin is the main active ingredient in turmeric. It has powerful anti-inflammatory effects and is a very strong antioxidant. However, curcumin is poorly absorbed by our bodies. Studies have showed that black pepper helps and enhances the absorption of curcumin by whopping 2,000%. Curcumin is also fat soluble, so it helps if you take it with a fatty meal or drink.
It’s all in this pesto and therefore in the bread, too
Turmeric? Check! Hence Curcumin? Check! Black pepper? Check! Fat? Check! It’s all in this powerful pesto. This time I used Cashew nuts instead of walnuts, they have a more neutral taste and let the Turmeric be be the main actor when it comes to taste. Cashews are a very good source of Zinc and plantbased protein, too.
Get creative
Get creative with the form of this Braided Bread with Turmeric Cashew Pesto Filling. I’ve got a video in my IG stories highlight where you can see, how I form the classic braided bread we learn in Switzerland. But of course you can make up your own bread form. Twist and turn these pesto filled rolls the way you like it. Just keep in mind that the smaller you cut the bread (if you make smaller rolls instead of two big breads) the baking time might be shorter.
Check out my other recipes for Pesto Breads:
[Recipe]
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TURMERIC POWDER
ORGANIC CASHEW NUTS
NUTRITIONAL YEAST
MAPLE SYRUP
Prep Time | 35 minutes |
Cook Time | 45 minutes |
Passive Time | 60 minutes |
Servings |
breads
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- 2 cups basil leaves
- 2 cups Cashews
- 6 garlic cloves peeled
- 1 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/4-1/3 cup olive oil extra virgin olive oil if possible
- 2 tsp sal
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 3 tsp turmeric powder
- 935 gr white wheat flour
- 185 gr white spelt flour
- 2.5 tsp salt
- 35 gr fresh yeast
- 1.5 tbsp maple syrup
- 500 ml plantbased milk for example soy milk
- 165 ml olive oil
Ingredients
Cashew Pesto with Turmeric
Bread
|
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- 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.
- Leave the yeast with the maple syrup in a cup and set aside.
- Mix in a big bowl the flour with the salt.
- In a saucepan mix the plantbased milk and olive oil and warm it up (not too hot, otherwise the yeast will be dead ?).
- Add the yeast to the warm oil-milk mix and stir well.
- 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.
- Put the dough back into the bowl and cover with a wet kitchen cloth.
- Let ferment for about 1 hour.
- Take the dough out of the bowl and cut into 4 equal parts.
- Using a rolling pin, roll one part into a rectangle, aprox. 30 x 50 cm.
- Take 1-2 tbsp of the pesto and spread it on the rectangle.
- Then start rolling it up from the long side and make a roll.
- Repeat with the 3 other parts.
- 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.
- 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.
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.