Dilled Cottage Cheese No-Knead Sandwich Loaf

Flecked with dill and finished with a butter-salt glaze, this rich sandwich bread

gets added to our Christmas dinner spread every year. In fact, it’s the only thing my son has eaten for Christmas dinner for the past four years. 

The origins of this recipe are murky. It's been around our family my whole life - firmly entrenched in our Christmas food culture. It’s high in protein thanks to the addition of cottage cheese and has a smooth dill flavour that pairs well with just about any flavour. Slather it with butter. Eat it plain. Dip it in gravy. But the best reason to make this bread is for the leftover turkey sandwiches. Dill bread + leftover turkey + cranberry sauce. Smash them together. Delicious. 

Ingredients

1 package active dry yeast  (1 tbsp)

¼ tsp baking soda

2 tbsp white sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp dried dill weed

2 tbsp melted butter (plus more melted butter for the final glaze)

¼ cup very warm water (not boiling)

1 cup lukewarm cottage cheese

1 lightly beaten egg

2 ¼  cups all-purpose flour

Pinch of sea salt

Instructions

In a large bowl, mix together the yeast, ¼ cup all-purpose flour, baking soda, white sugar, 1 tsp salt and the dried dill weed. Set aside. 

Combine 2 tbsp melted butter and ¼ cup very warm water (not boiling). Gradually add to the yeast mixture with a fork.  Beat mixture for 2 minutes at medium speed with electric mixer. 

Add the cottage cheese, egg and ½ cup flour to the mixture and beat another 2 minutes at high speed. 

Beat in the last 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour to make a stiff batter. (My mixer starts having difficulty here and I usually end up quickly kneading in the last ½ cup by hand). 

Cover, set in a warm spot and let rise until doubled in bulk. This step usually takes me about an hour. 

Stir down and transfer to a buttered heatproof dish. I use a glass loaf pan but you could use any loaf pan or even a casserole dish of around the same shape and size. 

Cover, set in a warm spot and let rise until doubled in bulk again. I find that the dough needs a pretty warm spot to rise properly. I heat the oven to the minimum temperature (around 170 degrees on my oven), then turn it off and pop the rising dough into the oven. I let the dough rise for about 45 minutes to an hour, then take the dough out, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once it’s hot, I put the loaf back in and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. 

Glaze with melted butter and a sprinkling of sea salt. 

Try to let the loaf cook before cutting!