It’s been a harrowing week but yesterday I resolved to get my act together and bake one more time before leaving Montreal. Unfortunately, my wife and I have been steadily using up all our remaining food and staples, leaving me with precious little with which to bake. Fear not! As usual, “Quick Bread” – my trusted source of speedy bread recipes which included Mini Cinnamon and Walnut Bread, Irish Bread, and Apple  

Bread – answered the call and listed this delicious recipe for Cottage Cheese Bread.

This recipe is dead simple and serves 2. All you need is:

Batch A
100g of all purpose flour, plus 1-2 tablespoons extra in a small bowl
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of baking powder

20g of cold butter, chopped up
3 tablespoons of cottage cheese
1 tablespoon of regular yogurt (though it may be interesting to see what happens if you add flavoured yogurt)
1 tablespoon of milk (2% is fine)

First off, preheat the oven to 180ºC/350 ºF.

Sift the ingredients of Batch A into a bowl. Then, add the cold butter and work it into the flour with the tips of your fingers. I didn’t work the butter in to the point that it completely disappeared into the powder. Rather, I left the powder looking a bit clumpy using a rubbed-dough method. As the seasoned bakers out there know, the less you incorporate the butter, the flakier the dough (see pages 1084-1085 of “The Professional Chef” (8th edition) for more about this technique).

Right…onwards and upwards. Mix in the cottage cheese, then mix in the yogurt, and finally mix in the milk. Kneed gently until all the ingredients are incorporated. You will be left with a moist dough. If, like me, you wanted to dry it up a bit and make it easier to handle, take your messy hands and pour in some of that flour you presciently put aside in a separate bowl.

Roll out the dough until its about 1cm thick. Chop up your dough into 6 equally-sized pieces and then put them on a baking sheet lined with a cookie sheet. If you’re feeling especially fancy, try brushing a quick egg wash over these gems. Bake for 20 minutes or until the bread is baked through and the top is golden.

These little breads are quite delicious on their own, but are also good with jam, butter, or even maple syrup. This entire procedure should only take about 30 minutes if all goes according to plan, so now there are no excuses not to make them! Get to it!