This recipe is a amalgamation and modification of a number of different recipes into an Über-bread that is ideal for taking to parties. It contains heaps of things that are good for you …. apart from the cheese which you can leave out.

OK, so this isn’t the best cuisine style art photograph and yes I know it looks like someone has nibbled the edge, but I had to cut that bit off otherwise it wasn’t going to fit into the container for transport …. honest.

The inspiration was a recipe for “Broccoli Cheese Bread” in Alison Holst’s Bread Book. Although I had broccoli available I was keen to use some silverbeet and spinach because they work well in similar things such as Spanakopita. I make all my own bread using a sourdough mix and so I had some sourdough bug that was looking to be fed and used which is why the recipe includes a sourdough base. I have included a variation of the recipe here that does not use the sour dough.

Sourdough
If you have a pet sourdough bug feed it up so that you have at least 1½ cups of sourdough starter available the next morning. The consistency used in this recipe is somewhere between a thickish pancake mix and a thin porridge.

The next morning

• 260mL Sourdough bug
• 140mL Water
• 1 Tablespoon of Canola Oil
• 1½ teaspoons of Salt
• 1 teaspoon of Sugar
• 3 cups of flour (white, wholemeal or mixture)
• 1 Tablespoon of Mixed Kibble
• 2 tsp of dried yeast (this can be left out if you have the time and you wish to leave the sourdough yeasts to do their bit and get a really sour flavour.)
• Optional 3 teaspoons of Gluten Flour – this improves the texture hugely

Stir all of the ingredients above into a ball and either knead it by hand or put it into a breadmaker on a dough cycle.

Non Sourdough
If you don’t have a sourdough bug to hand this is the non-sourdough recipe variation. It is just a yeast based pizza base.

• 2 teaspoons of dried yeast
• 1¼ cups (320mL) of warm water
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
• 3 Cups of flour (White, Wholemeal, or a mixture)
• 1 Tablespoon of Mixed Kibble
• Optional 3 teaspoons of Gluten Flour – this improves the texture hugely and marks you as insensitive towards people on Gluten Free diets.

Stir all of the ingredients above into a ball and either knead it by hand or put it into a breadmaker on a dough cycle. You may want to activate the dried yeast in a warm water and sugar solution first.

Onwards
OK, you now have a kneaded dough of one or other of the types above ….. hopefully not both…..otherwise you’re going to get a really big loaf.

Filling

• 1½ cups of chopped Silverbeet and/or Spinach
• 2-3 Sun-dried Tomatoes chopped
• 3 cloves of Garlic (chopped or crushed)
• 8 or so Pitted Olives chopped
• 1 Onion chopped reasonably finely
• Oregano
• Chilli powder to taste
• Salt
• ¾ cup of grated Cheese for the filling. Chopped Feta would be great for this if you have it.
• ½ cup of grated Cheese to sprinkle on the top.

Lightly fry the garlic, onion, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, oregano, chilli, and salt. Add the silverbeet and spinach near the end so that it softens. This whole process should only take a couple of minutes or so.

Assembly

• When you or the breadmaker have kneaded the dough enough, roll it out into a square of about 40cm x 40cm.
• Spread the silverbeet/spinach mix over the dough leaving one edge clear.
• Cover the silverbeet/spinach mix with ¾ cup of grated cheese.
• Roll the dough up towards the clear edge like a swiss roll.
• Moisten the clear edge and close it against the roll.
• Brush oil onto a pie dish (I found that a 22cm diameter dish was a good size and made a bread with a reasonable depth.)
• Cut your roll into 8 even sections, and place each pinwheel cut-side down in the pie dish. They will be relatively loose in the dish at this stage. Press them down a bit so that they are just touching each other.
• Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.
• Put the loaf somewhere warm to rise. I tend to put it in the oven and just tweak the elements occasionally so that the oven is warmish.

It will probably take about 2 hours for the bread to rise to at least twice the original size and projecting a good 2-3cm above the edge of the pie dish. Beyond this point it may try to escape from your pie dish.

Bake it for 30 minutes at 200°C

Put onto a wire rack too cool.