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.

An easy white sandwich bread with dill - keeps well, slices beautifully, and super simple

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.

An easy white sandwich bread with dill - keeps well, slices beautifully, and super simple

Toddlers love bread

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Dill Bread

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4.9 from 14 reviews

  • Author: Hilah

Ingredients

Scale

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 1/43 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.

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An easy white sandwich bread with dill - keeps well, slices beautifully, and super simple

46 Comments

  1. Billy on December 18, 2017 at 10:11 am

    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!

    • Hilah on December 20, 2017 at 7:24 am

      I love this bread!

      • Ellie on January 20, 2020 at 8:37 am

        This looks great!! Is there a good sub for cottage cheese in this? Would Greek yogurt work?

        • Hilah on January 23, 2020 at 10:59 am

          I’m not sure, but I think it would!

        • Alex on July 29, 2020 at 5:15 pm

          i used a mixture of sour cream and plain greek yogurt and it worked out really good!!!






  2. Tim on December 21, 2017 at 12:07 pm

    How long would you say that you need to knead (see what I did there) the dough?

    • Hilah on December 21, 2017 at 12:09 pm

      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! 😉

  3. Ginny on January 2, 2018 at 12:39 am

    Is there 1 or 2 eggs? 1 egg is listed twice as an ingredient, but the instructions sound like only one egg.

    • Hilah on January 2, 2018 at 7:30 am

      Just one! Typo is fixed. Sorry about that!

      • U on August 10, 2020 at 1:47 pm

        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.

        • Hilah on August 13, 2020 at 7:25 am

          Thank you for the vegan bread tips! So glad it worked out that way 🙂

        • Karin Bartimole on June 29, 2021 at 9:12 am

          This is great info! It came up when I searched for vegan dill bread recipes, so I appreciate your sharing detailed substitutions

  4. Diana on January 19, 2018 at 5:35 pm

    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!






  5. Martha on March 31, 2018 at 8:06 am

    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.






    • Hilah on April 2, 2018 at 8:16 am

      Thanks, Martha! I agree 🙂 I love this bread recipe, too

      • Ann Joy on April 16, 2021 at 1:06 pm

        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).






        • Hilah on April 20, 2021 at 6:47 am

          Thanks for letting me know!

  6. Noel on September 10, 2018 at 10:54 am

    Is the cottage cheese dry curd, or regular?

    • Hilah on September 10, 2018 at 11:10 am

      It’s regular

  7. Kim Overby on September 22, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    Should it be large or small curd cottage cheese?

    • Hilah on September 23, 2018 at 2:03 am

      Either will work as long as it’s not “dry curd” (most of them are not I think)

  8. Kay on March 10, 2019 at 6:59 pm

    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?

    • Hilah on March 11, 2019 at 7:54 am

      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.

  9. Kay on March 10, 2019 at 7:06 pm

    Hi Hilah ,

    Thank you for the sharing dill bread recipe. Would you please advise if I can






  10. Clive Papayanis on October 22, 2019 at 1:49 pm

    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






    • Hilah on October 22, 2019 at 6:03 pm

      Yes! Thank you! This really is a fantastic bread recipe, and agreed it’s probably from the cottage cheese.

  11. David Pickett on December 21, 2019 at 9:56 pm

    My wife and I love this bread!






  12. Sal on March 8, 2020 at 12:58 pm

    Just made this..OMG The best bread!






  13. Kimberly Rodriguez on March 17, 2020 at 6:27 pm

    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. 🙂

    • Hilah on March 18, 2020 at 8:35 am

      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.

  14. Lainie Grant on April 1, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    This has been my Covid19 salivation. I slice and freeze. Thank you!

  15. Natana on April 22, 2020 at 8:44 am

    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

    • Hilah on April 27, 2020 at 9:18 am

      I’m sorry, I don’t know for sure how to convert for rapid rise yeast

      • Jo P. on December 22, 2020 at 7:05 pm

        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.

        • Hilah on December 23, 2020 at 5:28 am

          Thanks!

    • Kathryn on June 10, 2020 at 4:13 pm

      DId you figure out how to do this? I too only have instant yeast.

  16. Carol on June 30, 2020 at 9:26 am

    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.






  17. Phyllis Flores on April 10, 2021 at 2:16 pm

    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.






  18. Kathy on May 1, 2021 at 7:06 am

    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!






    • Hilah on May 5, 2021 at 1:47 pm

      Awww, I’m so happy to hear this bread brought back memories for you! Great idea to use it for a grilled cheese 🙂

  19. Debbie Troxel on December 26, 2021 at 12:58 pm

    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

    • Hilah on January 10, 2022 at 11:55 am

      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!

  20. Max Turner on May 11, 2023 at 4:28 pm

    Why add the bakng soda to a yeast bread?

  21. Kirk on July 6, 2023 at 6:47 am

    I made this for our neighbors, they said it was OUTSTANDING! I’m vegan for health reasons, otherwise I would have dove in.






  22. sheila strong on July 30, 2023 at 10:44 am

    Beautiful loaf of bread and so scrumptious!!






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