Semi-dried tomato and feta pull-apart

I'm up in the country at my parent's house for this week doing what I always do when I'm here, cook. I generally take the opportunity to spend as much as mum's money as possible and cook as many things as possible before it's time for me drive back to my tiny kitchen in Melbourne.

So yesterday I started my cooking binge with a semi-dried tomato and feta pull-apart. After struggling to find a recipe at first the end result ended up being a mash-up of about three different recipes I had eventually found. And it turned out perfect! I was so proud because I don't have a good history of baking with yeast, things tend to end up gluggy or tough or just plain yuck. I had to substitute a bit of wholemeal flour beacuase I'd ran out of white flour and I think it m ade it even better! So here it is, and my version of the recipe:

Semi-dried tomato and feta pull-apart

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 7g sachet dry yeast
  
• 3 cups plain flour (I substituted about 1 cup of wholemeal flour and used wholemeal while kneading)
  
• pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 60g butter, chopped
• marinated feta (I used the dodoni feta in the little container where the dips etc are)
  
• small container of semi-dried tomatoes
• chopped up herbs (basil, rosemary, parsley etc)
  

Method

1. Combine 1/2 cup hot water and milk in a jug (mixture should be luke-warm). Add yeast and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place for 5 minutes or until small bubbles appear on the surface. Combine flour, salt, sugar and butter in a large bowl. Using fingertips, rub butter into flour until combined.
2. Pour yeast mixture into dry ingredients. Mix to form a soft dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes or until elastic. When you press dough, the indentation should bounce right back.
3. Preheat oven to 200 degrees and lightly oil a deepish casserole dish or loaf pan. Divide into eight even portions. Roll 1 portion into a (roughly) 10 x 20cm rectangle, about 5mm-thick. Sprinkle with chopped herbs. Top with one-eighth of the semi-dried tomatoes and one-eighth of the feta. Roll to enclose filling. Cut in half widthways. Place side by side and cut-side down in the pan. Continue with remaining ingredients. Cover and place in a warm, draught-free place for 30 minutes or until dough has risen to the top of the pan.
4. Brush with reserved marinade from feta and sprinkle with sea salt flakes and cracked pepper.
5. Bake for 15 minutes at 200 degrees then reduce to 180 degrees for a further 15-20 minutes or until it's a lovely golden colour and sounds hollow when you knock on it.
   
6. Let it cool a little bit then get into it! Tastes fantastic warm from the oven and as a side with soup or pasta, yum!