Weekly Bread/Week 2: Basil Pesto Bread

I know I just blogged my first week of bread a few days ago, but we're in the third week of January and I actually have made 4 different types, so I'm going to go ahead and get caught up :) This bread is sooo good and it's pretty fancy looking too. Tastes great/looks great. Win/win.
This bread reminds me of a pizza that I used to get when we went to Atlanta Bread Company, back in the good ol' days when we still had one in the area! I ate that pizza on my first date with my husband, so the taste is a little nostalgic to me...and that's my reasoning for making it four times in the past 2 weeks. Hah.
Ingredients:

160 ml warm whole milk
7g yeast
1/2 tsp. sugar
300g flour
30ml oil (I've used canola and olive oil, the olive oil made it slightly more dense)
1 tsp. salt

filling: About 5 tbsp. of basil pesto
optional: mozzarella (I didn't use it this time but I have other times and I like it better with the cheese-of course)

Step 1: Measure your ingredients and mix the milk, yeast and sugar in a bowl and let the yeast bloom aka get fluffy and bubbly. (As you can see I went a little over on the flour and it was ok)

Step 2: add the rest of the ingredients, turn it into a dough and knead it for a few minutes either by hand or in your stand mixer with dough attachment.

(It may look like I kneaded it by hand...I didn't. Kitchen-Aid for the win!)
Step 3: Let is rise til it's doubled in size, about an hour or two.
Step 4: Roll out the dough into two long rectangles approx. 16x8 inches.

Step 5: Add the basil pesto being careful not to get too close to the edges. Not like I did, or else it will bust out...like mine did. It still turned out ok. I am no perfectionist.

Step 6: Roll up the dough! Then braid it and brush it with olive oil (I forgot to brush it with olive oil...I wasn't kidding when I said I'm no perfectionist!) Then cut some slits in the top so that the basil pesto can seep out and look beautiful.

 Step 7: Bake in a preheated oven at 360* for about 30 minutes. Wait at least 15 minutes to slice into it and enjoyyyy. And use mozzarella! You won't regret it.