Dilly Casserole Bread is old fashioned recipe that's a Pillsbury Bake-off prize winner from 1960; as good today as it was then.
I first had this Dilly Casserole Bread when we lived in North Carolina and I made it when I was invited to a friend's home for lunch and I tried this bread for the first time; I was not at all sure I would like it.
The notion of combining a flavor best known for pickles with a bread seemed strange to say the least but I'm telling you the truth; left to my own devices I think I could sit and eat the entire loaf in one sitting.
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Those devices being a comfy chair and some butter. It is really that good and I'm so glad I've resurrected it from the past; it was time!
While I'm working to clean out some dead wood, I spied it ad knew I had to make a loaf and share it with you again; those old photos had to go...it deserved to look as good as it tastes!
I've had the recipe on this blog since 1996 when I first shared this recipe; nothing else; no photos! My friend who had made it didn't recall the origin either...forget the internet, she had a time worn 3X5 card with the recipe!
Somewhere in the back recesses of my brain I thought it might have been Southern Living Magazine; you know, one of those recipes that were sent into the publication by readers. If not it was probably from a compilation of recipes put together by a local church; those little cookbooks often held great treasures.
Not really expecting to find much I did a quick Google search before writing this post and lo and behold; it's attributed to Leona Schnuelle from Crab Orchard, Nebraska. She won the Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest with this bread way back in 1960.
It's sort of amazing that a bread I've known and loved for as long as I can remember, that surely has been included in more than one of very church and community cookbooks that I mentioned, would be from this classic competition.
I wonder now if any other winners have perpetrated a similar legacy...and now I'm sort of interested in finding out.
For this recipe it's apparent that the only ingredient required from Pillsbury was their flour which sure left the door open to lots of interpretation. I'm not sure I could compete adequately in the contest today where a variety of brand products are required to succeed so I'm hoping Leona was around long enough to witness how lucky she was.
If you glance at the ingredients, you might be taken aback. Dried and minced onion? Small Curd Cottage Cheese? Butter or margarine? OK, I can live with the dried onion; I usually have emergency stock on hand.
Nothing wrong with the cottage cheese; it's not a typical bread ingredient but it really adds something special to this bread.
What I changed in the recipe was a designation for butter OR margarine. I may have had margarine growing up because with our family of 8 those were the corners that were cut to keep the food budget in check.
Today I don't think it's worth the sacrifice; it's butter baby...all the way!
If you're not sure what you're serving with your holiday meals or summer barbecue, try something different. The flavors are subtle and delicious...I don't think you can go wrong!
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Dilly Casserole Bread
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