holy bread! (copied from baking nuns. really.)

I know 75% of the people reading this just read the word “bread” and tuned out, because “bread” means “work” and that’s not good. But this bread doesn’t mean work. It means … you need to go to church and thank God for creating artichokes, provolone, pesto and sundried tomatoes. It takes one hour, start to finish.

I’m serious. Keep reading.

You need these things:

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose white flour
• 1T white sugar
• 1 t salt
• 1 package rapid-rise yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 T butter, melted

And:

• 1 package dry pesto mix (or make your own, you pick)
• olive oil
• 3 slices provolone cheese
• 1 small bottle marinated artichoke hearts
• 1/2 bottle sundried tomatoes (about the same amount as the artichoke hearts)
• 1 egg, separated. Discard the yolk and reserve the white.

Mix 2 1/4 cups flour, sugar, salt, yeast, warm water and butter. Add enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for four minutes. Roll out into a 10×14 inch rectangle.

Empty the pesto mix into a bowl and add a little olive oil at a time, stirring, until a it forms a loose paste.

Spread the pesto down the center 1/3 of the dough you just rolled out. Place the slices of provolone on top of it, overlapping slightly.

Drain the artichoke hearts and squeeze out the excess oil with a paper towel. sprinkle evenly over the provolone.

Repeat with the sundried tomatoes and sprinkle evenly over the artichoke hearts.

With a sharp knife, make cuts from the filling to the dough edge, about 1″ apart. Alternating sides, fold the strips of dough at an angle over the filling. You can see photos of how to fold the dough here. Brush the top with egg white.

Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You can do this without the parchment paper, but why? It’s one less dish to wash, darlings, and you won’t have to worry about it sticking. Cover it with a soft towel.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Fill a shallow pan with boiling water and place the baking sheet over it. Let the dough rise for 15 minutes.

Bake for 25 minutes and cool slightly before serving.

You won’t be sorry.

The great thing about this bread is that you can fill it with anything - pizza stuff, sandwich stuff… use your imagination! Go crazy! Create! Invent! And tell me what you did so I can do it, too.