Lunch loaves - a brief how-to and Ta-da!

Thank you every one for your lovely comments recently especially those for my lunch loaves.  You asked if they were easy and they are. Hopefully I can explain how simple it is and you will give them a try.

If you are new to bread making or hesitant about making bread then you can purchase small bags of ready-to-make bread complete with the yeast and seasoning and all you have to do is add water and knead.

I started bread making this way but now am making it from scratch however I am lucky that I have a bread maker so I use that instead of my muscle power to knead and leave the dough in the machine to prove and rise.
Then I remove it and do the rest by hand and cook in my already heated oven.

Having got the dough to the point of being ready to cook I divide it into large bun sized lumps.

For the basil and cheese lunch loaves, I just pulled the top of the bun open with my fingers and filled with first a basil pesto and then topped with grated cheese and baked in a hot oven until ready (when you tap the base of the loaf it has a lovely hollow sound).

The bacon, cheese and basil loaves were a little different.  The dough was gently spread out by hand to make a rectangle shape. The filling was then spread over the top - first a generous layer of basil pesto, then diced smoky bacon (already pre-cooked) and cheese. I then gently pressed the filling into the dough by hand.

At this point the dough was folding inwards in thirds, pressed together again by hand and then cut to make the lunch loaves. To stop the filling falling out during baking, I pinched one side closed and turned that into the base, leaving the other open side up to bake.

The savoury chickpea filling was the easiest to make. Rounds of dough filled with premade curried chickpea and vegetables which were then pinched shut and baked.

Ta-da!

My mouth is watering just thinking about them.....think I shall have to make some more and soon!

Hope this helps :)  Happy eating xx