A Savory Filled Roll Story

 Dough:
-3 C AP Flour
-1.5 C Water
-1/4 tsp yeast
-1.5 tsp salt
-1 tsp basil
-1/2 tsp rosemary
-other herbs as desired

Filling*:
-1/2 block cream cheese
-1 container Greek yogurt
-1/2 C sliced cherry tomatoes (or diced any other tomato)
-4 TB pesto
-1/4 C chopped spinach leaves
-Handful of craisins
-1 C mozzarella cheese
-Salt and pepper to taste

OK, I am going to start off with a little side note.  The filling recipe is what I would use if I was making this completely from square 1.  However, as you know if you were following my blog, I had some yummy "sauce" so to speak leftover from my pasta salad that I knew I would use again.  With maybe a little less than half of my recipe of that leftover, I added the cream cheese amount and another bit of pesto.  So, if you had some leftover, that is what you would do.

I also used the remaining half (or slightly under) of the dough I had used for my pizza.  So, if you don't want leftover dough and are starting this from scratch, halve the recipe. Anyway, mix all the dough ingredients together and let it raise overnight.  I let mine raise in my gas oven because it is warm in there.  My apartment is hit or miss.  Let the dough rise about 12 hours (overnight) and then let in sit in your fridge a day or so.  That part is optional but it does develop nice flavor as it sits in the fridge.

Get out the dough you will be working with and dust your work surface with flour.  I like to flour the top as well and smoosh and stretch the dough until I get it pretty thin.  I stretched mine into a rectangular shape. Mix up all of the filling ingredients except the cheese.  Spread the filling out on the dough and top with the cheese, saving a fourth or so out to top the rolls with.  Since I was using my leftover mix, I put spinach leaves on as an extra.  I rolled mine over like cinnamon rolls, rolling it so that it created a long log (instead of rolling it where it would have more turns but be short, I wanted to get a more numbers out of it, but either way will work just fine depending on your end goal).

This is where you will veer from what I did.  I love dark nonstick pans.  I love them, they are amazing, I adore using them.  So how in the world I ended up with my round glass dish for this part I have next to no idea.  I momentarily lost brain function I suppose.  You will use your 13x9 inch pan and not have to bake these nearly as long.

Unless you are patient, in which case maybe you will use glass as well.

I greased my glass dish and cut sections from the roll about an inch wide.  I arranged them in the dish where they were relatively close but not touching.  I melted butter and drizzled some over the top, and sprinkled them with garlic cheese topper.  I put a little remaining mozzarella on top.

I baked these at 350 for right under 50 minutes.  At first I could not fathom why they were taking so long to get done...THEY ARE THE EQUIVALENT OF CINNAMON ROLLS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.  I knew that having a filling like this one that was cream cheese based would add some time, but this was getting ridiculous.  And then I realized my error.  I hate baking in glass.  One time I tried to bake brownies in a glass pan because that was all we had easily accessible back in my dorm days, and they just really never got the same kind of done that brownies really get.  I was so frustrated.

I love glass dishes for roasting meat and veggies together.  And meatloaf! They are great for meatloaf.  But I would REALLY like to suggest putting these rolls in a metal baking pan.  In which case, I would start checking them around 25-30 minutes.  I make my actual no knead bread anywhere between 30-40 minutes depending on what temp I am baking it at, so that is what I draw my suggestion here from, as well as glancing over other filled roll recipes.  It could certainly take longer if they are touching each other like they were in mine, so an exact time is going to vary on a lot of things.

But, I tried them, and THEY ARE DELICIOUS! I am very happy.

But I have not determined a real name for them yet.  I have to work on that.

Happy crafting!