Carby Cravings

There's just something about this time of year that makes a person crave carbs. Sweets, cookies, breads... all that good stuff. If I was on a low-carb diet, I would die when Winter came around! I probably do consume more than my fair share of the bready things once the temperature starts to dip, though. The good thing about making your own bread, besides having it perfume your house to high Heaven, is that you can use it as a write-off when you go to eat it. After all, you did knead the dough, and you had to haul the flour out of your pantry too, right? Heck, when I made this bread, I reason that since I even made the pesto (pumpkin-seed roasting and everything!), this bread can't have a single calorie in it at all...

I'm warning you about this recipe... it may be one of the most comforting, addictive goodies I've ever made! Even my mom (who is usually very good with self-control, even when it comes to carbs) fell in love with this bread, snatching a slice as soon as it was cool enough to cut without disintegrating!


The recipe is a variant of my Irish soda bread dough that I spread with Friday's home made parsley and pumpkin seed pesto before rolling up Danish-pastry style (essentially double rolling... once the 'long' way, then re-flattening the dough and re-rolling it into a round, spiral shape). The taste is very unique, in that it's rich without being heavy, both sweet and salty and even includes that delicious buttermilk tang I love in my soda bread. I love how it looks too, like a mossy crag of stone or one of those marbled geodes (anyone have one of those as a kid? I love them!). The green comes from the vibrant, fresh pesto I made the other day, and makes this bread a good one to send off to the next Bread Baking Day event - coloured breads - at GrainPower! The pits in the crumb help trap gobs of butter, too (and if you use honey butter, even better!).


Herby-Marbled Bread
Serves 14
3 cups spelt flour
1 cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 tbsp honey
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup Pepita-Parsley Pesto

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.
3. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until it gets to a coarse mealy texture.
4. Seperately, mix the buttermilk, honey and egg until well beaten.
5. Mix wet mixture into the dry ingredients until very well combined. The dough will be very sticky, but add no more than 1/4 cup flour extra if necessary.
6. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth.
7. Flatten dough into a large rectangle and spread pesto evenly over the surface.
8. Roll the dough up from the long side to make a long "snake" of dough.
9. Flatten this log, and roll up into a tight spiral from the short end.
10. Place the (now round) loaf onto a cornmeal-dusted cookie sheet.
11. Bake 40 minutes.
12. Cool on wire rack before slicing.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 176.3
Total Fat: 4.8 g
Cholesterol: 25.0 mg
Sodium: 60.4 mg
Total Carbs: 28.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.3 g
Protein: 6.0 g