Old fashioned dill bread made from our family recipe – imagine the aromas of yeast, dill and onion baking in your kitchen! It is best served piping hot right out of the oven – with lots of butter- of course!
This is such an easy bread recipe! No kneading required. You just mix it up, let it rise, shape it and let it rise again and bake.
The recipe calls for basic bread ingredients – yeast, flour, egg, butter, salt and sugar, plus some special ingredients – cottage cheese, onion and dill. Small curd cottage cheese is used to give it a soft, moist crumb.
When we used to make it when I was growing up, we usually used dill seed. Since I could not find dill seed in our local stores and the dill is not mature enough to have seeds yet, I decided to snip up fresh dill to put in the bread. You could also use a combination of fresh dill and dill seed to give it even more dill flavor.
My sister had recommended these scissors to cut herbs, and I was impressed! They made the job so easy!
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water and let it set until foam forms on top. Heat the cottage cheese to lukewarm, then combine with the yeast mixture. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until combined.
Shape into a ball, butter a large bowl and place shaped dough in it. Cover and let rise until double in size, about an hour.
Press the dough down and shape. You can bake the bread in an 8-round casserole (which is what we used to always do), a regular sized loaf pan, or mini casseroles or loaves.
Place shaped bread in prepared pan(s). Cover and let rise until doubled. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Bake the casserole loaf about 40-50 minutes, the regular loaf pan 40-45 minutes and the mini casseroles about 25-30 minutes. Look for the top to turn a golden brown.
Let cool in the baking dishes for about 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. Brush with butter – lots of butter! Then sprinkle with coarse salt and extra snipped dill, if desired.
Enjoy this bread while it is hot and the butter is warm and melting down the sides! So good!
The small sizes are wonderful sizes to share! Give as a gift in a mini casserole or loaf dish or put in a gift basket with other homemade treats or fresh produce from your garden.
Enjoy this family recipe!
Dilly Bread
Ingredients
- 1 package Active Dry Yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 cup warm water (about 110°)
- 1 cup small curd cottage cheese
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 tablespoon minced onion or minced dry onions
- 1/4 cup snipped fresh dill or 2 teaspoons dried dill seed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2-3 tablespoons melted butter
- coarse salt, snipped fresh dill or dill seed for sprinkling
Instructions
- Dissolve yeast and 1/2 teaspoon sugar in the warm water. Set aside for 10 minutes until foam forms on top.
- Heat cottage cheese to lukewarm. Combine the cottage cheese and yeast mixture together.
- Add the remaining ingredients and mix until combined. Shape into a ball.
- Butter a large bowl and place shaped dough in it. Roll the dough to butter all sides.
- Cover and let rise in a warm until double in size, about 1 hour.
- Press the dough down and shape. Can shape into ball and place in buttered an 8-inch round casserole, or a buttered regular loaf size pan, or 3 buttered mini loaves or casserole dishes. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about an hour. While dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°.
- Bake casserole loaf about 40-50 minutes, the loaf pan 40-45 minutes and the mini loaves or casseroles about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown on top.
- Remove from the oven, let cool in the baking dish for 5 minutes, then remove to a rack.
- This bread is best eaten warm…especially right from the oven. Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt and extra dill. Enjoy!
