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Spiral Pesto Rolls
November 1, 2007 |
Last week we got a box of goodies in the mail from our dear friend, Latha. Among other yummy things, was a jar of her favourite red pesto, with tomatoes, herbs and cashews.
For the past few days we’ve been eating rice, and the wheat craving was too acute to ignore. We didn’t have any pasta, so we made some pesto spirals inspired by our sweet Chelsea buns.
Yes, wheat is addictive. It’s official.
Pieces of milk and wheat proteins (peptides) can act like the body’s own narcotics, the endorphins, and were described by Zioudro, Streaty and Klee as “exorphins” in 1979. Other food proteins, such as gluten, results in the production of substances having opiate- (narcotic) like activity. These substances have been termed “exorphins.” Hydrolyzed wheat gluten, for example, was found to prolong intestinal transit time and this effect was reversed by concomitant administration of naloxone, a narcotic-blocking drug. Digests of milk proteins also are opioid peptides. The brain effects of exorphins may contribute to the mental disturbances and appetite disorders which routinely accompany food-related illness. The possibility that exorphins are addictive in some people is a fascinating lead which needs further exploration.
So we rustled up these rolls and had them with cream of tomato soup. The perfect orange Halloween night dinner. We also had them for breakfast today, and they are goooood.
Any thick pesto, chutney, tapenade, curry paste or savoury spread can be used for this recipe. We have made this before with leftover cooked veggies. If the veggies are reasonably dry, you can use between 1 and 1.5 cups. Since we were using a very wet and oily pesto, we used 1/2 cup. Since pesto is oily, we skipped this step. Otherwise, spread a tablespoon of oil on the rolled out dough before spreading the filling.
If you wish to make a single loaf, make the roll, tuck the edges under, and bake for 25-27 minutes. Reduce the yeast to 2 tsps.
SPIRAL PESTO ROLLS
(Makes 9)
Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached bread flour/all purpose flour
1 tsp vital gluten (optional)
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup water
1.5 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
**we drained the oil from the pesto jar and used it
3 tsps active dry yeast
1.5 tsp sugar or honey
1/2 cup prepared or homemade pesto
Method
1. Warm the water until tepid, add the yeast and sugar, stir and keep aside for five minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the pesto and 1 tablespoon oil) into a bowl or bread machine container, with the salt at the bottom and the yeast mix at the top.
3. Knead until a smooth, elastic dough is formed.
4. Cover the bowl and put the dough in a warm place until it has doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hours).
5. Punch the dough down gently and roll it into a 10×10 inch square.
7. Spread the pesto over it evenly, leaving 1/2 inch uncovered one one vertical side.
8. Roll the dough, jelly-roll fashion towards the uncovered edge.
Pictorial HERE.
9. Press the edges to seal and cut the roll into 9 slices.
10. Grease a baking sheet or a 9×12 inch pan and place the rolls in them cut side up.
11. Cover the pan with an inverted baking sheet or oiled plastic wrap.
12. Keep it in a warm place for 30-45 minutes until the dough has nearly doubled in size. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400F with a rack in the middle.
13. Brush with the remaining tablespoon of oil.
14. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the buns are well-risen and evenly golden all over.
15. Let them cool a bit, invert the pan take the rolls out as a single slab and keep it on a wire rack to cool some more. Take care not to press them too hard, or they will flatten.
These Spiral Pesto Rolls go to Baking History for Bread Baking Day #4.
red-pesto, spiral-pesto-rolls, Tomato, vegetarian recipes, Wheat
OMG!! They look awesome. I will have to try making them.
Savory rolls!! YESSSS!! My kinda food. Looks delicious!:)
oooh, i love savoury bread rolls more than the sweet kind when they have such great fillings
I make one with a filling of cheese, mustard, black pepper and pimento peppers which is just great. Need to try this with pestos!
Sumptuous Rolls Bee……An eyecatcher
:) 
Wheat is addictive…Tell me about it!
There’s some telepathy here
i made a lot of pesto last weekend, there’s still some in the fridge! and i had orange soup for dinner as well!! (i made pumpkin soup!). can you beat that! i wish i had seen this recipe earlier 
A big thank you, for posting this
i am all for savory stuff 
I loved the sweet chelsea buns and am sure this will be no exception… they look yum.
Thos look absolutely delicious, I was just thinking of making some with feta and spinach, pesto would make that so different. I guess you could put tapenade instead too.
I love experimenting. I am a scientist after all.
they look wonderful, and so must have tasted…never have known a pesto before…:(
Roll it up wil rolls. Yum yum. Rolls look gr8
gosh i thot it was me,,,that used to get these wheat cravings every few days and rush to have a brown wheat toast… lightly buttered with chai…. heaven….love the pesto buns….
Lovely! I know these rolls taste excellent!
love the savory rolls, i take the short cut & use puff pastry
Must try these. Is the whole wheat flour same as the Indian atta? Or must we buy the American version? My palms are itching already..thank you for this recipe.
we recommend whole wheat flour. atta would work, but the texture would be a little different. - b.
whats ur address..or do u want me to sniff around and make ti all the way to ur place
Its a torture to my dieting resolution! :hmm:
They look absolutely delicious. I love all your savory baked goodies, since even though I bake a lot, they are mostly sweets and I hate sweets :(.
love’em….they look super delicious!
They look fabulous, on my “to try” list
Another savory pastry, looks fab!
Wheat craving? :ohno: I don’t even know what that is, I do get rice cravings though
yaay! no eggs..love that…i get cravings of rice and wheat alternatively…esp. when i am eating rice or wheat for more than 2 days
wow..they look so tempting…
They are just fabulous.
Delicious
oh How much I love those savory pastries. :embarrass. They look fabulously delicious.
its sounds like a lot of hard work ..has been put into this dish, i would use the same filling or make changes like usinging pesto with feta cheese or spinach(frozen)with feta or fontina cheese in one of the pillsbury cresent rolls..its really easy even their dinner rolls ..just roll cut and bake simple ..
you pay for the convenience with - >50% of calories coming from fat, hydrogenated oils, high sodium content etc…–jai
well i completely agree with you Jai on this , but then again how often does one eat dishes like this , they are usually party dishes..startes or a tea party thing ..
its nice to indulge in such dishes once in a while.besides its just an option for the working people or busy moms
apart from that i loved the red pesto concept had never heard about it before,will try it for sure.
p.s-they do sell the reduced fat version.. ;)smile…….please
Wow, they look so yummy Bee, I was busy for 2 days and already I missed so many new posts!!
Those look soooooooo delicious Bee! Very cool, so innovative. I always use the pesto with Pasta or Pizza. Never tried it with this! Yumm!
Never tried pesto in these type of rolls. Truly a nice variation . Thanks for sharing.
looks great! A nice way to end a evening with this snack and a cup of english breakfast tea!
wowww… and another wowwwwwww to that gorgeous looking carrot halwa.
Great rolls.. look perfectly crisp & ready to go for…Must be a great appetiser!
Those spirals are beautiful, Bee.
These look awesome! On first glance (yes, I stare at the pix before I start reading :)), I thought they were cinnamon rolls (not a big fan of those!), but I love the twist (pun intended)
I’m definitely going to try these - too good to pass up!
those rolls look delecious
My success with your chelsea buns inspire me to try this too. But again my buns were never raisen this high
have to learn a lot! Excellent rolls Bee!
looks so yummy - both the rolls and the pic
by the way, i have announced WBB for Nov. The details are here: http://cookingandme.blogspot.com/2007/11/theme-for-wbb-17-is.html
I tried to add this as a comment to your events calendar post but couldn’t find the comments link.
Thanks a ton!
will try this…
love it already.
wow!! look fabulous….but me is upset…at this rate i will never be able to try out stuff…. i seem to be just ending up with a tonne of bookmarked recipes from you guys!! i havnet gotten around to the Chelsea buns and now this!! how about sending some across as a diwali present??
Jai and Bee,
The bbd#04 roundup is now online. Thanks for your participation!!
manuela
BEAUTIFUL spirals. I would love to make these. The red pesto makes them look extra special. I can even make some red and some green, then it will look very festive, huh?
Thanks for sharing, they do look addictive…
We made this for my bday
and I love love love this.
Nice article with very good points. I will share it around.
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