Last week I posted a recipe for a simple Einkorn bread. The recipe works well as a tasty loaf of bread that can be topped with honey, cheese, meats or just butter. I shared some with a friend who has a very sensitive tummy and she was happy to report that it had been a good day. There is more information on the benefits of Einkorn in the original post.
On Friday, I was given some Feta in brine and as I had a half block of chopped spinach in the freezer that needed to be used up, ideas began spinning.
You will need:
1 recipe of Einkorn bread
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 Tbsp. dried onions, minced
1/2 cup crumbled Feta cheese
1/2 package of frozen spinach
Make up the Einkorn bread adding the garlic and dried minced onions. Cover and put away to rest.
Place the spinach in a sieve and allow to thaw and drain. If feta in brine is too salty, let the cheese sit covered in water overnight to draw out some of the salt. If salt is good, then leave the feta until the following morning.
The bread recipe is baked in a glass or ceramic bowl with lids to get that crunchy artisan crust. I needed something smaller as my plans was to make buns.
The picture to the left was the original plan however the loaf pan was too low and the buns touched the top so I moved on to a higher bowl. I ended up baking two small ramekins under one bowl and one slightly larger ramekin under a second smaller bowl and learned two things. Be very careful when taking the bowls off the ramekins at the end. Steam burns, so open by turning the bowl away from you. The dough once divided down into three smaller “buns” take just as long to bake as the original demi loaf.
When the dough is ready, begin by putting the filling together. Squeeze the spinach until as dry as possible. You should end up with about 1/3 cup of chopped spinach.
Crumble 1/2 cup of feta cheese into the mixture ( leaving about 1 Tbsp aside ) and toss. If the feta has been sitting in water, taste and add salt and possibly a little extra garlic powder, if needed.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees, with bowls and covers inside.
Take the dough out of the bowl it has been rising in and place on a floured counter. The dough will be moist, so expect it to absorb lots of extra flour.
Roll out into a rectangle and top with the spinach feta mixture.
Starting from the long side roll up the dough, into a long pinwheel rope and cut into thirds.
Roll each third around itself, tucking in any open spaces where the filling might leak out.
In the plain recipe, the bread just pops out once baked but here it can require a little extra effort if the cheese has stuck to the side of the ramekin. Sprinkle with the remaining feta.
Take the baking bowls out of the oven and drop the buns into the ramekins, making sure not to touch the hot containers. The dough will sizzle. Place the lids/coverings on top and return eveything to the oven. Reduce the temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 30 – 35 minutes.
This bun was in the larger ramekin ( 4 inches ) and baked by itself. There was no extra topping and it got browner and baked more quickly.
These were baked in smaller ramekins ( just under three inches ). The bread rose higher, looked a little more like large muffins and as there were two buns under a larger dome, needed five minutes longer than the bun baked alone.
I happened to have had a small slice of poppyseed strudel the day before that was so sparce in its filling that I may have gone a little overboard when putting these buns together. There is no question these are feta and spinach.
Personally, one was too much. I would happily share a bun over a homemade bowl of hot smoked turkey vegetable soup.
Feta and Spinach Einkorn Buns from My Kitchen Wand
