Dill Bread
A recipe from my great-grandmother’s files; I think this one was actually in her husband’s handwriting. I’ve had it — and considered making it — for five years or so. Something about it put me off, but lord knows that was the dumbest thing I ever did because this bread is dope as hell, y’all. Forget the dill part, this is really just a perfect white bread recipe. Easy to slice, excellent for sandwiches, and delicious enough to make a meal in itself with a thick smear of butter and sprinkle of flaky salt.
Cottage cheese is a surprise ingredient and one that you’d never guess was in there. I don’t even know where it goes once it’s inside. It just gets all mixed up and the batter goes from lumpy to smooth and bakes up to give you this damn fantastic texture. Look at that fine crumb!
You can double the recipe to make two loaves and you might want to do that. The first time I made this, we had another small family over for lunch and between the four adults and three kids, the one loaf was gone by the end of the day. (P.S. It goes great with minestrone soup and broccoli cheese soup.)
It keeps very well, wrapped up at room temperature, for about three days. And seriously if you want to leave out the dill (it doesn’t really add that much flavor tbh) and call this perfect white bread instead, that’s okay by me.
PrintDill Bread
Ingredients
1 envelope dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup cottage cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons soft butter
1 egg
2 teaspoons dried dillweed
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4–3 cups all-purpose flour
Extra soft butter for greasing pan
Instructions
Put the yeast into a large mixing bowl (the bowl of your stand mixer if you have one) and add the water. Allow to soften for a few minutes.
Add cheese, butter, egg, dill, salt and soda and mix well.
Add 2 cups of flour and mix. Will probably be a stiff, sticky batter.
Begin kneading the dough, adding more flour as needed to make a smooth, elastic dough. It may still be a little sticky to your hands but as long as it can pull together into a ball, it should be good. This may take 5 minutes or longer.
Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place (70oF or so) for 1 hour or until doubled.
Punch down and shape into a loaf. Grease a large (9×5) loaf pan with a teaspoon or so of butter and place the loaf inside. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise another hour.
Set oven to 350ºF. Bake the risen loaf for 30 minutes until golden brown on top. Spread top with a little more butter.
Let cool 10 minutes then gently tump out the loaf from the pan and let cool on a rack at least 10 minutes before slicing.
This looks delicious! I’ve never had dill bread before, although I have had some types of baked goods with dill in it. Thank you for sharing! I can’t wait to try making this at home!
I love this bread!
This looks great!! Is there a good sub for cottage cheese in this? Would Greek yogurt work?
I’m not sure, but I think it would!
i used a mixture of sour cream and plain greek yogurt and it worked out really good!!!
How long would you say that you need to knead (see what I did there) the dough?
Takes about 5 minutes with a stand mixer/dough hook. Probably a couple minutes longer if you’re kneading by hand. It’s delicious any way you slice it! 😉
Is there 1 or 2 eggs? 1 egg is listed twice as an ingredient, but the instructions sound like only one egg.
Just one! Typo is fixed. Sorry about that!
I tried your recipe but I veganized it by replacing cottage cheese with tofu, a flax meal egg in place of the real one and vegan butter. I also added 2 tblsp of finely chopped onion 2 tblsp of chopped garlic, 2 tsp of dried dill seed and 1 tblsp of granulated garlic. I think dill and garlic complement each other but I felt like I especially needed to compensate for the blandness of the tofu. In the past veganizing a recipe has turned into a gamble so I was anxious but thankfully it came out really well! Thank you for this recipe. I’m definitely going to be using this again.
Thank you for the vegan bread tips! So glad it worked out that way 🙂
This is great info! It came up when I searched for vegan dill bread recipes, so I appreciate your sharing detailed substitutions
Made this last night for a Finnish dish I brewing up. I cook most every day but don’t bake often (except for pizza dough.) This was super easy and highly scrumptious. Will make again. Thanks!
Best bread I ever baked!! My husband loves it and made me promuse to bake it every weekend. Keeps great on the table for a whole week wrapped in Plastic wrap. Stays moist and delucious.
Thanks, Martha! I agree 🙂 I love this bread recipe, too
I substituted Bob’s Red Mill AP gluten free flour. Followed recipe otherwise. It came out so good. Just had a sandwich with it and it was delicious. I’m going to try the vegan version soon (recipe from one of the other comments).
Thanks for letting me know!
Is the cottage cheese dry curd, or regular?
It’s regular
Should it be large or small curd cottage cheese?
Either will work as long as it’s not “dry curd” (most of them are not I think)
Hi Hilah ,
Thank you for the sharing dill bread recipe. Would you please give me tips if I can make this bread eggless and with whole wheat flour?
Hi Kay, I think you could easily swap whole wheat pastry flour for the AP flour. I think you could omit the egg, if you add a little more liquid, maybe 3 T of water plus 1 T olive oil or something like that.
Hi Hilah ,
Thank you for the sharing dill bread recipe. Would you please advise if I can
An incredible receipe, probably a result of the cottage cheese. Beautiful texture/crumb and creamy taste. I added a tablespoon of very finely chopped fresh dill and a good pinch of onion powder. Yum
Yes! Thank you! This really is a fantastic bread recipe, and agreed it’s probably from the cottage cheese.
My wife and I love this bread!
Just made this..OMG The best bread!
My dough didn’t rise…yeast was good. I checked the date. But instructions doesn’t say how long to knead dough. When i read up on reasons why, one was that i had to knead 5 minutes at least by machine, longer if by hand. I only kneaded a minute or so. So i guess i didn’t knead long enough
May want to add that to your instructions. (For beginners) Anyway, I’ll have to try again. Hopefully it comes out as good as everyone said. 🙂
I’m sorry it didn’t rise. I think the problem may be your kitchen is too cool this time of year. I will add that and the kneading time. I usually put my dough (covered, in a bowl) in my oven (turned off, it’s still warmer than the rest of the house) or on top of the fridge. Also, the one hour rise time is an estimate. Sometimes it will take longer, especially if the room is cooler.
This has been my Covid19 salivation. I slice and freeze. Thank you!
Hi! I can’t find any yeast other than rapid rise because of covid 19. Would it be ok to substitute? Would it be a different amount and would I still add water?
Thanks!
Natana
I’m sorry, I don’t know for sure how to convert for rapid rise yeast
I have instant yeast and always use it like regular yeast. I have baked bread for years. I have made dill bread before, from a different but similar recipe and am anxious to try this recipe.
Thanks!
DId you figure out how to do this? I too only have instant yeast.
I have the same recipe that is excellent but instead of dill weed it calls for dill
seed and it has a fantastic flavor. After baking I spread the top of bread with
butter and sprinkle with sea salt. It is a wonderful savory bread.
My mother has uses this same recipe and has for more years than I can count. It is the BEST bread recipe I’ve ever had and the only one I will ever use. I can’t make it without thinking about my dad; this was also his favorite bread of all time.
Thank you for such an easy and delicious recipe!!!! When I made this I added a little extra dill weed and replaced the cottage cheese with plain greek yogurt since I didn’t have cottage cheese. My dad used to buy dill bread at a bakery many years ago; however, the bakery closed and every so often I would crave their dill bread. This bread reminded me exactly of the bakery bread. I shared the loaf with my sister and she agreed. I will definitely make this again; it’s so good for a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Thank you!
Awww, I’m so happy to hear this bread brought back memories for you! Great idea to use it for a grilled cheese 🙂
I just made the bread. So delicious. I followed the recipe and also used rapid rise yeast. It raised up beautifully so I don’t think it matters whether you use regular or rapid rise. Doubled the dill. Still couldn’t really taste it. I used fresh dill from my aero garden. Will definitely make it again
Thanks Debbie! I do think this recipe works best with dried dill, perhaps because the flavor is more concentrated? But of course the dried dill would have to be fresh as well. Glad you enjoyed the bread!
Why add the bakng soda to a yeast bread?
I made this for our neighbors, they said it was OUTSTANDING! I’m vegan for health reasons, otherwise I would have dove in.
Beautiful loaf of bread and so scrumptious!!