November 18, 2010: Pizza pull-apart loaf

Pizza pull-apart loaf is our calendar recipe for the month of November.  I imagined it being just the thing to bake in the morning and pack for a picnic but I actually ended up preparing it for a weeknight dinner, roasting some broccoli and garlic on the neighbouring oven tray.

This pull-apart loaf is not quite like the light bready ones I've encountered at bakeries; it reminds me more of damper.  On the couple of mornings that I lightly toasted a leftover wedge for breakfast I remained full for hours longer than usual, uninterested in lunch until mid-afternoon.  So it's lucky that it didn't go stale for days - I needed a good 24 hours to work up an appetite for another slab!

Pizza pull-apart loaf

4 cups plain flour
2 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
90g butter, cold and chopped into cubes
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 green capsicum, chopped
3/4 cup tasty cheese, grated
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup tomato-based pasta sauce

Preheat the oven to 190°C.   Line a baking tray with paper.

In a food processor, briefly pulse the flour and baking powder.  Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Transfer the butter/flour mixture to a large bowl and stir through the sun-dried tomatoes, capsicum and 1/2 cup of the cheese.  Add the milk and egg, combining it all to form a dough.  Knead the dough lightly, form it into a 20cm round and place it on the baking tray.

Use a knife to cut not-quite-through the to the bottom of the dough, so that you've marked out eight wedges.  Fill the wedge cuts with pasta sauce, then sprinkle the remaining cheese over the loaf.

Bake the loaf for 35-40 minutes, or until it's golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped at the base.  Allow it to cool for 10 minutes before serving.