Oh, that sounds good. Thanks for the dough-thawing tip, too. I was somewhat taken aback the first time I put some down in the fridge the night before and it had risen!
I love the way it looks in the braided form, don't you? I first discovered that as Crawfish Bread in NOLA.
I make something similar for snacking, out of Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough with a variety of fillings. The ones I make are smaller than your loaf, since the dough doesn't rise, and I nicknamed them "huaraches" because they look like Mexican sandals to me. Some of the filling shows through a little bit, like seeing skin through the straps of sandals, lol.
Some are shaved ham, Swiss, capers and Dijon mustard. Some are pizza/calzone fillings. Some are Reubens, with corned beef or pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing. I also make two sweet ones, a chocolate one with Nutella for the filling, then cream cheese icing drizzled over, and one with cinnamon apples filling, also with icing glaze.
I should do a pumpkin one, with cinnamon sugar outside, to taste like an empañada. Also thinking of doing a Cornish pasty-type one with ground beef.
My next one will be Brie cheese chunks, covered with a litle bit of orange marmalade or apricot preserves, with my toasted pumpkin seeds from my pie pumpkins sprinkled over before enclosing, if I *ever* get them hollowed out. (Can't decide yet on a couple of ways to fix them and shelling the pepitas will take forever.)
Thank you for the recipe! I've also had an artichoke bread made from that bread dough - just a jar of marinated artichokes, chopped, plus some mozzarella cheese. Brush most of the marinade on the rolled out dough, put the artichokes and cheese down the middle, then roll it into a tube, lengthwise, and join the ends in a circle, pinching to close. Brush the rest of the marinade on top and bake as normal.
Wow, you are a much more vigorous cook than I am! And your ideas are wonderful.
I think my spinach variety would be good with feta or swiss cheese added to the filling. The first time I made it the local grocery had a three pack of frozen loaves of bread dough on sale and I had to do something to use them up. It was fun.
I'm not much of a cook these days. But recipes and discussions like this are interesting to me.
Cheerio,
jm