Stromboli

While listening to a food blog during my workout the other day I heard about a bread similar to stromboli and decided to make some that night to go along with orecchiette primavera that I was making for dinner. I took a couple of recipes and used them as examples and then created my own version. I used a basic bread recipe:

2 tsp dry yeast

1 1/4 cups water

2 1/4 cups bread flour

1 cup whole wheat bread flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp olive oil

Proofed the dough until doubled, punched down and let rest for 10 minutes, then shaped into rectangle, which I let rest for 10 minutes before topping with:
3 cloves chopped garlic

1 tbsp dried basil

1/3 cup fresh chopped basil

1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese

Then I rolled the dough up jelly roll style, placed it onto a greased baking sheet and poked holes all over it with a meat fork, drizzled with 1 tbsp olive oil, topped with 2 tbsp rosemary, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. I baked it for 1 hour in a preheated oven at 400˚ and cooled it about 10 minutes before topping with 2 tbsp olive oil drizzled all over.

You need to let this cool for quite a while and resist temptation to eat it immediately because the dough will still be cooking on the counter top. Trust me, it's super good reheated or eaten at room temperature.

I would recommend using a more flavorful cheese, but I had mozzarella on hand so that's what I used. You can make all sorts of variations of this, using different herbs, spices and toppings.

Enjoy!