Dill Bread - Grandma's Old Fashioned (2024)

Gorgeous golden brown loaves of old-fashioned dill bread served piping hot out of the oven, smothered with butter and sprinkled with coarse sea salt. An ultimate temptation that fills the house with aromas of dill seed and minced onions and is hard to resist.

I've recently spent some time returning to my cooking roots, where tried and true family treasures hide. This has me reminiscing of days gone by. I have family recipes galore in an old Hallmark recipe organizer. Here handwritten directions are found on the side columns, newspaper clippings from the "Food" section are tucked away in the back, and scribbles of ingredients on scraps of paper stuck between yellowed dog-eared pages. The splattering of every food item imaginable has diminished the outer beauty of this book. But the precious memories it holds in its interior grips my heart every time I revisit it.

This Old Fashioned Dill Bread recipe lies somewhere in that ragged recipe organizer between Divinity Candy and Raised Donuts. The last time I made this bread was a couple of years ago when I gave them as gifts in a basket with lots of other goodies. I opened the organizer a few weeks back, and this recipe caught my eye again. So, here, I share this time-tested family recipe with you to indulge and enjoy.

Family bread recipes tend to bring me comfort and a sense of nostalgia when they're baking in my kitchen. Some of my favorites are Sweet Cornbread, Homemade Dinner Rolls, and Old-Fashioned Banana Bread. All of these seem to bring calmness and serenity to my heart.

Why I love this Old Fashioned Dill Bread Recipe:

This bread is infused with flavors of dill and onion.It's amazing how a smidgen of dill seed and a little bit of minced dried onions can permeate an entire loaf of bread.

I love the soft and spongy texture it produces at its center. Crusty, crunchy bread is awesome, but sometimes I want a dense pillowy effect when I'm biting into a slice of bread. That's exactly what you get with this recipe.

It's a very easy yeast bread recipe - there's no kneading involved. Although a package of active dry yeast is used, there's no elbow grease of pushing and pressing to get the dough perfectly kneaded. Mix it until it's combined and let it rise a couple of times. That's it.

Yeast is What Gives "Rise" to this Old Fashioned Dill Bread

The number one ingredient that gives "rise" to this loaf is the package of active dry yeast that has first of all been proofed. What does that mean? You want to make sure the yeast in your cabinet is still alive. In this recipe, dissolve the yeast and ½ teaspoon sugar in ¼ cup of "warm to the touch" water (between 105-115°F).

Watching to see if the yeast foams up

Place the yeast mixture in a warm area (microwave works great) and let it sit for about 10 minutes or until the foam on top has doubled in size. If the yeast does not rise, it’s because the water was too hot or the yeast is old. If that’s the case, you will need to start over. This is an indication that your bread will not rise either.

Warming the Cottage Cheese

Adding cottage cheese to this recipe produces a soft and moist crumb. Warm the cottage cheese before adding all the other ingredients. I'm not sure why the warming is called for, but I've always done it that way because my mom always did it that way and others before her. I just blindly follow but the results have always been great.

No Kneading Required!

All the ingredients are then added to a large bowl and mixed together just until combined. The beauty of this recipe - "no kneading" required! Now that's what I call the ultimate bread-making recipe. Throw everything in together, mix it up and let it rise. It doesn't get any easier than that, my friends.

Time to Rest, Time to Rise

Dilly Bread dough should rise twice. The first time in a buttered bowl set in a warm place (like a microwave), with a dishtowel placed over it. Let the dough sit for about one hour or until it doubles in size. The second time shaped into loaves and placed into the pans and back into a warm area covered with a dishtowel.

Fermentation takes place during this process. You don't want the dough to rise beyond double because it stretches the gluten too much and will cause the end product to be tough.

How to tell if the Dough has Risen Enough

How can you tell if your dough has risen to its proper stage? Use the tip of your finger and make an indentation around the outside of the dough. If it bounces back about halfway, you know your dough is ready either to punch down and rise again to go into the oven for the final step. If it doesn't bounce back, it has risen too long. If it completely bounces back, you can be sure it's not fully risen.

Shape the Dough into Loaves

The second rise comes after shaping the dough into loaves and placing them in greased baking pans. I doubled this recipe and it gave me one regular loaf pan and three mini loaf pans. Like the first rise, cover it with a dishtowel and place the loaf pans in a warm place and let them rise for another hour or until the dough again has doubled in size.

I'm sorry that there is no photo of the risen bread dough in the loaf pans. While photographing the batch, my reflection board toppled over and smashed every loaf. It could've been such a cool shot. Oh well, it happens (more often than I would like to admit.)

Baking the Dill Bread

The temperature I bake these little beauties at is 350°F. The regular size loaf pan took anywhere from 40-45 minutes which, as you can see from the photo above, turned out stunningly rich in golden brown tones. The mini loaf pans came out of the oven in about 25-30 minutes. Don't take them out before you have this luscious gold hue.

Nobody Likes Soggy Bread

Don't let the baked loaves sit any longer than five minutes in the pan, otherwise, they sweat and produce condensation. And who wants soggy bread? Gently remove the bread from the loaf pans and place them on a wire cooling rack.

Immediately while the bread is still warm, slather it with butter on the top and sides. This gives the bread a beautiful glossy appearance. The final step is to sprinkle the tops of the loaves with coarse sea salt. Well, actually the final step is slicing and devouring.

Overwhelm your Senses

From the beauty of the loaf itself to the whiff of yeast, onion, and dill, to the explosion on your taste buds, your senses will be overwhelmed with pure pleasure. The satisfaction this Old Fashioned Dill Bread gives is so delightful, that I promise you'll return to slice another piece and slather it with butter time and again. It's really hard to restrain myself while this dilly bread is sitting there staring at me from the counter and calling my name. But of course, I do need to work on my discipline. Well, I think I'll work on that tomorrow. Yep, tomorrow is good.

If you love this Dill Bread Recipe, you will also love my

Homemade Bread Roll Recipe

Sweet Cornbread Recipe

Homemade Pizza Dough

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