Red Pesto & Parmesan Dough Knots - Recipe!

National Vegetarian Week starts on Monday and although none of my family are vegetarians we do eat some veggie meals. I do try to fit one meat free meal onto our meal plan each week and when I started doing it my family hated it, they are meat lovers but they are coming around to the idea. A few of our regular meals are veggie, the meat free sloppy joes, carrot & coriander soup and vegetable fajitas to name a few. The veggie fajitas were an accident the first time I made them, I forgot to buy the chicken so we just had the peppers, onions and mushrooms.

These Red pesto & parmesan dough knots are made with just seven ingredients and uses seven pieces of kitchen equipment, tasty red pesto and cheese are tied up in a soft dough for single serve, savoury snacks. 

Makes 8 knots

Ingredients

A Packet fast action dried yeast (7g).

220ml of warm water.

400g of strong white bread flour.

1 tbsp of white sugar.

1 tsp of salt.

Half a jar of red pesto.

170g of your cheese of choice, parmesan is recommended.

Equipment

A measuring jug.

A spoon.

A large mixing bowl.

A rolling pin.

A knife.

A baking tray lined with baking paper.

A cheese grater.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°c (fan).

In the measuring jug, combine the warm water and yeast. Stir and set to one side for 2 or 3 minutes to activate the yeast.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Pour in the yeast and water and stir them together with your hand to form a dough.

Sprinkle your worktop with a little flour and knead the dough until smooth, then return to the large mixing bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for at least 15 minutes to prove (this is where it will start to grow in size).

Using your fist, knock the dough back (this means push the dough back down to its original size) and tip out onto a floured worksurface before rolling into a large rectangle shape (about 5mm thickness).

Spread the red pesto on half of the rectangle, grate a thin layer of cheese on top and then fold the over half of the dough over the pesto and parmesan.

Cut the dough into 1 inch wide strips, then, holding each end, twist and knot each one before placing onto a lined baking tray.

Bake for 15 to 20 mins until risen and evenly browned then remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, grate more cheese on top and serve.

This recipe is from the Easy Peasy Baking campaign, launched by UK Flour Millers, making baking simple. You can find more Easy Peasy Baking recipes and information on the campaign over on the Fab Flour website.