Tomato and Cheese Wreath Bread
This tomato sauce and cheese wreath has a nice crust and soft gooey middle filled with tomato sauce, cheese, seasonings and fresh basil. It has all the flavors of pizza and more. Fun to put together and holiday showstopper. Serve this warm right out of the oven with some extra dipping sauce, pesto and wow your guests.
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients
Bread dough or use store -bought pizza dough
- 2 ½ cup All-purpose flour or Bread flour
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp milk powder
- ¾ cup milk
- 4 tbsp butter
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp oregano
- 1 cup thick marinara sauce
- Tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Italian seasonings salt, parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme, dried basil, black pepper, red chili flakes etc
- 1 tsp grated garlic
- ¼ cup chopped basil
- 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
- 1-2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
- ½ cup pecorino romano
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- Cherry tomatoes for garnish
- 2 tbsp milk or cream for washing on top
Tomato
Instructions
- Place the all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, milk powder and yeast in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. If you do not have a stand mixer, you can do it by hand too. Give it a light mix. You can also add oregano and black pepper.
- Warm milk in microwave until it is warm to touch around 110F. Milk should not be too hot, or else it will kill the yeast. Mix in the butter too in the milk. Let it melt too.
- Now, pour this liquid into the flour mixture. Beat the mixer for 3-4 minutes on slow. Once dough is formed. Lift the dough into ball. Use dry flour if it’s too sticky. If you are making it by hands, just mix everything and make dough.
- Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Place it in a slight warm place until it rises and doubles in size for 90 minutes.
- Prepare the tomato sauce if you have not already prepared it. We need to cool it down before adding to the bread. Shred the cheese or use shredded cheese and leave it aside.
- Assemble the wreath - When the dough has doubled in size after 90 minutes, punch it down to release all the air bubbles. Lightly flour the surface you will be rolling out your dough.
- On a lightly floured surface with flour, roll out the dough into a rectangular shape approximately ¼ inch and 17 inches long. Spread cooled tomato sauce onto the dough leaving about 2 cm edges. Starting from the long side, tightly roll the dough into a log.
- Place the log on piece of parchment paper on a tray. Form a circle by bringing both ends together.
- Using a pair of scissors, cut diagonally at 45’ angle to create slits and pointed roll. When you cut into the dough not all the way through, make sure you leave a little dough intact at the bottom so that the wreath maintains its shape. Once you cut one roll, move it to right. Cut another roll and move it to left. Keep doing it until the whole wreath is shaped.
- If you like you can also keep all the rolls on one side may be just the left or just the right. It will be a different looking wreath.
- Cover the wreath and leave it aside to rise again for 10-20 mins. We don’t want too much rise. Just a little. In my case my dough was already risen while I was shaping it. You can see in the pictures. So, if that’s the case you can bake it immediately.
- When the wreath is risen and puffy, pre heat oven to 375’ F. Brush the heavy cream or milk or even an egg wash if you eat eggs on the wreath. This gives color to it while it bakes. Bake it for 20-25 minutes or until its golden light in color.
- Remove it from the oven and let it cool down few minutes before serving. Ideally, it should be served slightly warm so that the cheese is melty inside.
- When serving it, garnish it with some pine nuts, cherry tomatoes, extra freshly grated parmesan cheese, basil, some herbs. You can also put some dipping sauce like tomato, alfredo or pesto in the middle of the wreath for dipping extra bits.
- To prepare the filling
- Add all the ingredients to a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture has thickened. Set it aside to cool.
- Notes
- The wreath is best enjoyed the day it is prepared. Leftover can be warmed up in the oven or toaster oven. Store it in an air-tight container in the fridge.