Woven Herb Bread

Ingredients

Total Time: 3 hrs 15 min (approximately):
20 minutes prep, 2 hr 15 min rise time, 40 min baking time

  • 3/4 Cup Almond Milk*, warm
  • 2.5 tsp active yeast
  • 2 Tbsp honey
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 3 3/4 Cups Bread Flour, plus extra for rolling1 tsp kosher salt
  • 8 Tbsp plant based butter*, softened to room temperature, plus additional for the top of the loaf and serving
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 Tbsp fresh sage, chopped
  • 3 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
  • 3 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

Instructions:

  1. In a measuring cup or small glass bowl, combine the honey, yeast, and warm almond milk and whisk together. Let this sit for 3-5 minutes while the yeast activates. Be sure the almond milk isn’t too warm, or you’ll neutralize the yeast.
  2. While your yeast mixture activates, in a larger glass bowl add 3 3/4 Cup bread flour, salt, and three eggs. Once almond milk and yeast mixtures has bubbled and activated, add this to the bowl as well, then using a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk, blend your ingredients together until you’ve formed a shaggy dough.
  3. Add 2 Tbsp of your plant based butter to this shaggy dough, and knead to fully incorporate it until your dough is smooth and can be shaped into a round ball.
  4. In a clean glass bowl, add your 1 tsp of olive oil and use your hands to coat the inside of the bowl. Transfer your fully kneaded dough ball into this new bowl, and flip to coat it with oil, then cover and set aside to rise for 1 hr and 30 minutes in a warm area - or until slightly more than doubled in size.
  5. While your bread is rising, finely mine your garlic and chop your herbs and add these to your remaining 6 Tbsp plant based butter in a bowl, and blend together with a fork until fully worked through.
  6. Once your dough has doubled in size, uncover and punch it down, then sprinkle a little additional bread flour on the surface where you’ll be rolling out your dough. Transfer your bread dough to your floured surface, and roll out into a large rectangle about 12” x 18” (I’ll be honest, I’m never precise with forming a rectangle, my goal is to make a shape that is longer on one side and shorter on the other, in an approximate of a rectangle shape)
  7. Spread your mixed herb butter across this mixture, then roll the dough up, starting from a short side, and pinching the end into the rolled loaf, until you have a long rope-like bread dough.***
  8. Using a sharp knife, start about 2” from one end, and slice down the center of your roll, splitting the entire length in half (with the exception of that first 2” end that should remain connected). Flip these two sections so that the herb and butter layers are facing up, then begin to twist them over top of each other, consistently keeping the butter/herb layers toward the top, all the way down to the end, then pinch the ends together.
  9. Once you’ve made a wrapped rope, start at the end that you didn’t cut, and curl it in on itself to the right until it’s fully rolled in and meets the center of the twist. Then, from the other end, curl the unrolled part up the opposite way of your first curl, wrapping it in on itself until it also meets at the center of the twist. You should now have a twisted and rolled loaf that resembles an “S” shape or a snake.
  10. Transfer this carefully to a parchment lined cookie sheet, cover and let it rise for the second time, for another 40 minutes - while it is rising, preheat your oven to 350 F.
  11. Once your oven has preheated, uncover your woven loaf, and put on the middle shelf of the oven, uncovered. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
  12. Remove from the oven, rub additional plant based butter across the top, and transfer to a cutting board to cool - or enjoy fresh and warm straight from the oven.

*Note: I made this loaf of bread dairy free - my youngest son cannot have dairy products, so I opted for plant based alternatives. If you do not need to adhere to that allergy, you can substitute whole milk and salted butter in place of the almond milk and plant based butter if you choose.

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