Wholegrain pesto swirls

I wanted to bake something to celebrate my mother's birthday today. Last weekend we enjoyed some lovely quiches with goat's cheese and broccoli, so today I ended up making some healthier wholegrain swirls with a cream cheese, green pesto and feta filling, topped with grated mozzarella.

Fresh out of the oven!

Wholegrain cheesy pesto swirls (~40pcs)

for the dough: 

5dl water
1sachet dry yeast
pinch of salt
1-2tbsp olive oil
10-12dl wholegrain flour (the amount is an estimate, the dough should not be too hard or too sticky. I had wholegrain wheat and wholegrain graham flour)

filling:

150grams Philadelphia cream cheese
1/2 jar green pesto (shop bought this time and red pesto would obviously work just as well)
200grams feta cheese
200-250grams grated mozzarella cheese (hold some for topping the swirls)

1. Prepare the dough. Start by adding some of the flour into the warm (42degrees) water. Mix in the dry yeast as you keep adding more flour and at this point the olive oil and salt. Continue adding flour until the dough forms a ball that is soft and not sticky. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let it double in size for about an hour in a warm place.
2. Knead the dough to get rid of any air bubbles. Divide the dough into two. Put one aside and roll out the other piece of the dough thinly to a rectangle shape.
3. Mix the cream cheese and pesto to a smooth paste. Spread half of it over the rolled out sheet of dough. Crumble some of the feta cheese on top and finish off with the grated mozzarella.
4. Roll up the filled sheet of dough as if making a Swiss roll. Cut the roll into (2,5cm - 3cm) pieces and place them onto a tray covered with parchment.
5. Repeat the process with the other piece of dough.  
6. Preheat the oven to 200degrees (175 if using a fan assisted oven) and while waiting for the oven let the swirls rest under a tea towel.
7. Sprinkle the swirls with grated cheese and bake for 15mins or until golden.

If cutting up both filled rolls of dough, the recipe yields roughly 40 swirls. I left the other roll untouched and baked it (probably for 35-40mins) as a wreath or a ring, topped with some of the grated cheese. It came out looking more like bread, very rustic with the cheesy filling oozing out here and there. I was happy with the end result of both versions!

Different kind of bread.

             

Enjoy as a snack or serve up as an alternative to quiches or other savoury party foods.