One of my favorite holiday food traditions when I was growing up was the dill bread I used to help my Mom make. It took a while to make a loaf, since you had to knead the dough a couple of times as well as wait for it to rise, but the awesome smells that filled the house as the bread cooked made it all worthwhile. Plus the dill bread tasted so yummy, soft on the inside and crusty on the outside — perfect for leftover turkey, ham or grilled cheese sandwiches.

I have tried several times to recreate this wonderful bread in my bread machine, with varying results until the last couple of times. I finally have tweaked the original recipe enough that it finally comes out of the bread machine perfectly, and the best part (besides the smells wafting through the house as it bakes and the excellent taste) is that there is no more tiresome kneading, since the bread machine does the work for you!

I follow the instructions for my particular bread machine (Zojirushi, which I love!) as far as the order in which you add the ingredients, so you may need to adjust the sequence a bit depending on the type of machine you have.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup water
• 2/3 cup cottage cheese, small curd
• 3 cups white bread flour
• 1 tablespoon dry buttermilk powder
• 1 ½ tablespoons dill seed
• 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 package (1/4 ounce) yeast
• 2 tablespoons butter

Preparation

Add the water and cottage cheese to the bottom of the bread machine.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, buttermilk powder, dill seed, dried onion and salt.

Gently place this mixture on top of the cottage cheese and water. Make a well in the middle of the flour, ensuring that you do not break through to the liquid ingredients.

Pour the yeast in the well. Cut the butter into small pieces and arrange on top of the flour, making sure not to touch the yeast.

I use the basic bread and medium crust setting on my machine. It takes 3 hours and 45 minutes to bake. So easy to assemble, and then just walk away until it’s done! Yum-oh!

I like this bread with chicken salad, tuna salad, deli meats and cheeses, or as shown in this grilled pimento cheese sandwich. Doesn’t that look awesome? Well, it is, and you should make some today!

Bon appétit!

Eat, drink and be merry!

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