Cottage Cheese Dill Bread

Background

Do you remember the other day when I shared the Coconut Almond Torte recipe, and I said it was from The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest Cookbook by Mollie Katzen of Moosewood fame? Well, this dilly bread recipe with cottage cheese was in there too. It’s so good, and you know I’m on a big cottage cheese kick, so I had to share it.

If you love cottage cheese too, you have to check out my other cottage cheese recipes like Blueberry cottage cheese cake, cottage cheese cookie dough, cottage cheese sweet potato bowls, and cottage cheese everything but the bagel dip.

Ingredients

Let’s just look at a couple of the ingredients, the rest are pretty straightforward. But feel free to ask questions in the comments if you have any.

Cottage cheese: Really, any cottage cheese will work here. I recommend full fat small curd. Full fat will have the most flavor; small curd will blend into the bread nicely. You can see I used large curd in the one in the pictures. Large curd is great, and I don’t mind the little bits of cottage cheese, but small curd will blend better. Lower fat and even fat free will work here if you want to save fat and calories, just know that it won’t be as rich and flavorful. If your cottage cheese is very thin and watery, place it in a strainer lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter over a bowl and refrigerate overnight to drain off the excess liquid.

Sugar or honey: The sweetener just helps provide some balance and crust on the bread. It’s only lightly sweet. And, it’s really your choice what sweetener you use here. I like granulated sugar in baked goods. Sugar is cheaper, easier to measure, and gives consistent results. Honeys can vary in texture and moisture content, making them a little less predictable in baked goods. Honey can make baked goods softer and moister. And, really, just about any sweetener should work here, so feel free to try your favorite.

How to make

The full printable recipe ingredients and instructions are available in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. You can find important tips and tricks in the post.

prep

Grease a loaf pan. Any medium sized loaf pan will work here. My loaf pan is a ceramic 9×5 inch loaf pan, and it works well. You can also use an 8×4 inch pan. You may have to adjust the baking time depending on the size of the pan as well as the material the pan is made of.

Bread generally bakes faster in a metal loaf pan compared to a ceramic one. Metal heats up and cools down more quickly, leading to a faster baking process. Ceramic pans, while retaining heat well, are slower to heat up initially, which can result in a longer overall bake time. So keep an eye on the bread if you’re baking in a metal pan.

mix

This is a really simple two bowl quick bread. First, you’ll mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and make a well in the center. You’ll be pouring the wet ingredients into the well in just a minute.

As a side note, many older recipes tell you to sift dry ingredients together. This is not only to mix them, but because flour was lumpier back in the day. Now, manufacturers pre-sift the flour for us. So, you can sift together in a fine mesh strainer, or simply mix them together. Your choice.

In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients and beat well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients along with the chopped dill, and mix just enough to thoroughly blend. The batter will be fairly stiff.

bake

Spread it evenly into the prepared pan, and bake until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Place the bread, still in the pan, on a cooling rack, and cool about 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan, and let cool on the wire rack for another 30 minutes or so until cooled before slicing.

Slice the bread with a serrated bread knife. Pro tip: if you find yourself struggling not to squish the bread as you’re cutting it, try turning the loaf on its side. It makes for much easier cutting.

Serving

This bread is delicious with simply a smear of butter on it. Perfect for breakfast or with dinner. But don’t stop there.

It’s great with a little cream cheese and thin slices of cucumber, like a fancy tea party sandwich!

Try it instead of cornbread with chili. Or serve it with some delicious Tahini Wild Rice Soup.

Try it with some zucchini jam (it’s kind of like pickles) for a fun snack!

These can be baked into muffins as well. Just keep an eye on them as they bake, as they’ll take less time. I’m in love with baked goods containing cottage cheese. Check out my Cottage Cheese Oatmeal Cookies too!

Also, very good lightly toasted and spread with raspberry jam.

Storage

This bread is great as leftovers, and it may be even better the next day.

Store the bread in a plastic bag, leaving it on the counter for up to 3 days or in the fridge for a week.

For longer storage, it can be frozen. Allow it to cool completely and wrap tightly in plastic wrap or foil, and use within 3 months.