Serves 8
LEONA SCHNUELLE OF CRAB ORCHARD, NEBRASKA, ABSOLUTELY SLAYED AT THE 1960 Pillsbury Bake-Off with her Dilly Casserole Bread, winning the whole dang competition, and it soon became a sensation with home cooks all across the country. It’s the simplest of yeast breads that can still be found in many a vintage recipe box, making its “no-knead” technique cool before no-knead bread was even a thing among modern food lovers.
As it happens, the original recipe is easy to pump up with bolder, fresher flavors. The original version calls for dried minced onion and dill seeds, which have a camphor-esque quality that isn’t my favorite flavor. Instead, I prefer to load up my dough with lots of scallions, fresh dill, and a tiny spoonful of dried dill, which gives you more of a layered dill flavor. Rounding it all out with a lift of lemon zest, a handful of Parmesan, and crunchy sea salt truly makes buttering optional with this recipe remix.
2¼ teaspoons instant yeast
¼ cup/57 g warm water (110° to 115°F/43° to 46°C)
1 cup/240 g 4 percent milk-fat cottage cheese
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
⅓ cup/32 g minced scallions
⅓ cup/16 g finely chopped fresh dill leaves
3 tablespoons/15 g finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried dill
Grated zest of ½ medium-size lemon
2½ cups/320 g unbleached all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
Nonstick cooking spray for casserole dish
Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon, for sprinkling (optional)
In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the yeast and warm water. Let rest for 5 minutes, then add all the ingredients, except the flour, cooking spray, and flaky sea salt, and whisk to blend well. Add the flour to the bowl, and fit the bowl on the mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until a stiff but sticky dough forms, about 1 minute. Scrape the bowl down well and form it into a loose ball in the bottom of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight, or in a warm place for 1 hour, until doubled.
Coat a 2-quart/1.9 L round ceramic casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Remove the dough from the bowl and shape it into a tight round: Using both hands, pull sides of dough underneath the ball of dough, rotating it as you pull and tuck the bottom of the ball underneath. Keep repeating the motion until the dough forms a tight, smooth round on top with no visible creases. Flip the ball over in 1 hand, and use all the fingers of the other hand to firmly draw in and pinch together all the ragged edges in 1 spot in the center, resembling a drawstring purse. Flip the dough ball over and place it in the prepared casserole dish. Let rise in a warm place until doubled—if your first rise was in the refrigerator, this will take about 1½ hours; if it was a warm first rise, 45 minutes.
Position a rack to the center of the oven and preheat it to 350°F/180°C. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flaky sea salt, if you like. Bake until the bread is deeply golden and sounds hollow when tapped in the center, 45 to 50 minutes (the internal temperature should register at 200°F/93°C on an instant-read thermometer). Let cool in the dish for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool further. Slice and serve while the bread is still slightly warm.
TIP > When it comes to proofing the bread for the first rise, you have two options. You can mix the dough in the morning or even the night before baking, and allow it to have a cold rise in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, which gives the bread impressive flavor. Or, if you’re short on time, you can get by just fine with a warm rise of 1 hour before shaping and resting a second time.