Spinach Bread alias Alien bread

Nothing to do. My daughters won't eat vegetables in any other form but soup, and even that can be risky if I'm not careful what spices I add.
The younger one says she eats "green stuff" only at school... we laughed... she cried because we didn't believe her  ^__^.
Then on the day I made this bread, my older daughter brought a friend home, and they wanted bread and nutella for afternoon snack. When I said I had only this green bread their faces clearly said "Yuck" and immediately baptized it "alien bread". Of course, they couldn't eat nutella with this strange bread, but fortunately at least the white (normal) part was "edible".
I do hope sooner or later they'll start appreciating vegetables more and more. I'm jealous when I hear some moms saying how their kids will eat any vegetable on Earth. If I listened to mine, my menu would be highly limited, and I'd probably be writing 1000-ways-to-cook-potatoes series of recipes here on my blog. And to think that they ate everything, broccoli and cauliflower included, while they were still too little to decide what they wanted or didn't want to eat.
I wish I could tell you this bread changed anything, but it's not true. Although, I'm sure, once again, if they only gave it a fair chance, they might have enjoyed it as much as I did.
I don't usually make this type of milk bread or sandwich bread, but every now and then a nice, soft slice of bread can save your lunch when in a hurry. A quick and healthy sandwich, in my case with cheese and grilled vegetables won't hurt.
If nothing else, I enjoyed making it, and it's colourful aspect made me smile.

Spinach bread

* 500 g flour
* 250 ml milk
* 1 egg
* 20 g fresh yeast (or 1 package active dry yeast)
* 75 g butter
* 15 g sugar
* 10 g salt
* 75 g fresh spinach

Carefully wash the spinach and without drying it put it in a deep skillet. Cover and cook on medium heat (no need to add oil or other water, the water that remained on leaves after washing is enough) until the spinach has wilted, a few minutes. Drain the spinach and then purèe with a stick blender. Set aside to cool.
Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm milk mixed with sugar.
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add the salt, lightly beaten egg, softened butter and in the end the milk with the yeast.
Work the dough with your hands or with an electric mixer until smooth.
Divide the dough in two parts. Mix one part of the dough with the pureed spinach, knead well so that the colour is homogeneous, adding a little more flour as necessary for the dough not to be sticky and wet.
Let both doughs to rest covered with a cotton cloth in a warm place for 15 minutes.
Then divide each part of the dough into smaller pieces (a little bit bigger than table tennis balls).
Put the dough balls into a lightly oiled loaf pan, alternating the green and the white ones, in a single layer.
Cover the pan with a piece of plastic foil and let the bread rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until it has almost reached the foil.
Remove the foil and let it rise a bit more, almost above the rim, while you are heating the oven to 200°C.
When the oven's hot, put the bread in and bake it for 20-30 minutes or until the crust is nicely coloured.
Take the dough out of the oven and put it back in the oven, directly on the oven rack for 10 more minutes.
Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool completely before slicing it.

Pane variegato ai spinaci


* 500 g di farina
* 250 ml di latte
* 1 uovo
* 20 g di lievito di birra fresco (o 1 bustina di lievito di birra secco)
* 75 g di burro
* 15 g di zucchero
* 10 g di sale
* 75 g di spinaci freschi


Lavate bene i spinaci e, con sola acqua di lavaggio rimasta sulle foglie, metteteli in una padella, coprite e lasciateli cuocere per pochi minuti, a fuoco medio, giusto il tempo necessario per farli ammorbidire un po'.
Scolate l'acqua in eccesso e frullateli. Lasciate raffreddare il purè di spinaci.
Sciogliete il lievito nel latte tiepido con lo zucchero.
Setacciate la farina in una ciotola, aggiungete il sale, l'uovo leggermente sbattuto, il burro ammorbidito e il latte  con il lievito. 
Impastate bene e poi dividete in due parti.
Mescolate una parte della pasta con il purè di spinaci, impastate bene aggiungendo la farina necessaria se la pasta dovesse risultare troppo umida e appiccicosa. 
Lasciate la pasta riposare per 15 minuti.
Dividete tutte e due parti (bianca e verde) in palline grandi più o meno come le palline da ping pong.
Mettete le palline in uno stampo da plumcake leggermente oleato, alternando i due colori, in un unico strato.
Coprite lo stampo con un pezzo di pellicola alimentare e lasciate lievitare il pane in un luogo caldo per circa 1 ora o finché la pasta non ha quasi raggiunto la pellicola.
Scoprite lo stampo e lasciate lievitare un'altro po'. Riscaldate il forno a 200°C.
Infornate il pane per circa 20-30 minuti o finché la crosta è bella dorata.
Toglietelo dallo stampo e rimettetelo nel forno, direttamente sulla griglia per altri 10 minuti.
Lasciatelo raffreddare bene prima di affettarlo.


Questo pane è particolarmente indicato per preparare dei panini al formaggio, con delle verdure grigliate e simili.

Šareni kruh sa špinatom


* 500 g brašna
* 250 ml mlijeka
* 1 jaje
* 20 g svježeg kvasca (ili 1 vrećica suhog)
* 75 g maslaca
* 15 g šećera
* 10 g soli
* 75 g špinata


Špinat dobro operite i stavite u dublju tavu (bez dodavanja vode ili ulja, dovoljna je voda od pranja koja je ostala na listovima), poklopite i na srednje jakoj vatri pustite da listovi špinata malo svenu, ne moraju biti skroz skuhani, dovoljno je da malo odmeknu.
Ocijedite ih i izmiksajte u kašu. Ostavite da se prohladi.
Malo zagrijte mlijeko. Namrvite kvasac u mlijeko i dodajte šećer (ako koristite suhi možete ga dodati izravno u brašno).
Prosijte brašno u zdjelu, dodajte sol, malo razmućeno jaje, omekšali maslac narezan na listiće i na kraju toplo mlijeko s kvascem.
Izmijesite dobro rukom ili mikserom.
Podijelite dobiveno tijesto na dva dijela.
U jedan dio tijesta dodajte kašu od špinata i dobro izmijesite dodajući još brašna koliko je potrebno da tijesto ne bude više vlažno i ljepljivo (radite to u zdjeli, a poslije dobro izmijeste na dasci da smjesa bude jednolične boje).
Ostavite oba tijesta da odmaraju 15 minuta.
Podijelite oba tijesta na kuglice (mrvicu veće od loptica za ping pong). Slažite kuglice naizmjenično u malo nauljeni duguljasti kalup. Stisnite ih da sve stanu u jednom sloju.
Pokrijte kalup nauljenom prozirnom folijom i ostavite na toplom mjestu da se diže oko 1 sat (dok tijesto ne naraste skoro do folije).
Otkrijte tijesto i pustite da još malo naraste, a pećnicu zagrijte na 200°C.
Stavite peći kruh kad je pećnica ugrijana. Pecite ga 20-30 minuta (dok ne vidite da je dobio lijepu boju).
Izvadite kruh iz kalupa i stavite ga opet u pećnicu izravno na rešetku još oko 10 minuta.
Ostavite zatim kruh da se potpuno ohladi na rešetki.


Kruh je naročito pogodan za pripremu sendviča sa svježim sirevima, grilanim povrćem, hladnim narescima, ili što vam se već sviđa.