Savoury Pull Apart Buns

I have seen many posts in the food blogosphere of these pull apart buns or spirals as you may call it. Yesterday I ventured into it for the first time and must say was very happy with the result. The recipe I primarily based my attempt on was actually of apple cinnamon pull-apart rolls but I didn’t want to make a sweet one so I used a savoury filling instead.

Ingredients

1 heaped teaspoon yeast,

¾ - 1 cup milk,

200 grams whole wheat flour,

Salt to taste,

20 grams caster sugar,

1 beaten egg,

1 ½ tbsp oil,

For the Filling

1 tbsp butter,

¾ cup sliced button mushrooms,

½ cup sliced leeks,

½ cup chopped capsicum,

½ cup mozzarella (shredded or chopped),

Salt to taste,

1 tsp mixed dried herbs,

Some fresh chopped parsley,

1 tbsp oil

Method

Add the yeast to about ½ cup of luke warm milk. Leave it aside to froth. (Now I have a love-hate relationship with yeast, sometimes when it loves me it froths and sometimes when it doesn’t it just refuses to froth :-). This time it didn’t love me, so I just used the milk-yeast mixture to knead the dough and left it overnight. And it had doubled.)

Mix the flour, salt and caster sugar. Once the yeast froths add it to the flour mixture and about ¾ of the beaten egg. Knead it to a supple dough. Add more milk if required. Cover with a lid and let it rise till it doubles in size.

Punch it down to let out the air.

Using a rolling pin roll the dough into a long thin rectangle. Spread the butter over this dough rectangle. Spread the filling over this and roll it carefully to form a log.

Grease a baking tin. Cut the log into 1 ½ inch pieces and arrange it in the baking tin. Brush it with the remaining beaten egg (this gives it a good glaze).

Preheat the oven for ten minutes at 175^oC. Bake the prepared rolls in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes till the top is fully browned. Cool for 10-15 minutes and serve warm.

To Make the Filling

Heat the oil and fry the sliced leeks till they start turning brown. Then add the capsicum and sliced mushroom and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the salt, mixed dried herbs and parsley. Mix well and switch off the heat. Let it cool a bit and fold in the shredded/chopped mozzarella. If you add the cheese when it is still hot, it will start melting and this will make it difficult to spread.