Braided Pizza Bread

This recipe has migrated from when 'A' used to be 'The' and hence the watermark on the pictures!
Bread is one of those staple foods I had not had much success with. Searching high and low, trying out different recipes with variable results - I had almost given up. That's when I came upon this amazing recipe like the proverbial 'hit rock bottom before achieving a high'. It is deliciously easy to make and believe me, will be gone from the table before you know it.

Without further ado, here's the recipe 

Ingredients -
For the Bread
1 ½ cups All purpose Flour
2 ¼ tsp Instant dry yeast
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Sugar
¼ cup Milk
¼ cup Water
2 tbsp Olive Oil + a little extra
Garlic Oil to drizzle [To make garlic oil - warm 4-5 tbsp Olive oil, drop 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic in it and let steep]

For the stuffing -
1 Onion chopped fine
1 Tomato chopped fine (without seeds)
1 Capsicum chopped fine
½ cup Corn Kernels
1 tsp dried Basil
1 tsp Chilli Flakes
1 tsp Italian mixed herbs
1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
¼ cup Pizza Sauce
Garlic Salt to sprinkle (Sea Salt/Rock salt is a good option too)
Salt to taste

Method -Preheat oven to 2000C (1900C for a fan forced oven)

For the bread –
Add the flour, salt, sugar and yeast to a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the milk and water (both lukewarm). Mix to form pliable dough. At this stage the dough could be sticky. Add the oil and knead for 5-7 mins. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, coat it liberally with oil, cover with a damp cloth and set aside till it doubles in size.

This will take about an hour (depending on how hot / cold the room temperature is in your kitchen)
Punch down the dough and knead well for 2-3 mins. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a rectangle making sure it is not too thick. This could be done on a ‘flour dusted’ clean work surface or on a sheet of baking paper.

For the stuffing –

Heat oil in a pan, add the onion and sauté for 2 mins or just enough to get rid of its raw smell. Add the remaining vegetables and cook on high flame for 2-3 mins. Remove from heat, add the herbs, chili flakes and salt and mix well. 

To put them all together –

Longitudinal, along an imaginary center line spread some pizza sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella so as to cover the pizza sauce.

Top it with the prepared vegetable mixture. Sprinkle once more with mozzarella and herbs.

Score the dough with a sharp knife starting from the stuffing, radiating outwards at an angle.

Bring in the slit strips alternating from both sides to give a ‘braid’ like appearance.

Brush the prepared bread with the garlic oil, sprinkle lightly with some garlic salt, herbs and some mozzarella.
Cover with baking paper and let rest for 15-20 mins.
Bake in the oven for about 30 mins or till the top is golden brown.

There you have one delicious home baked bread ready to serve.

Enjoy!!