A Savory Side to Cassie's Cakery - Pesto Fantails

As a reminder to those who may be reading this blog, Cassie's Cakery is a place where I am discovering the details of my future food business.  In this quest of a quest, which may take several years, I will be writing about baking experiments, business plans, and other important details of my future biz!  One of my many new years resolutions for 2010, was to blog once a week.  So far, I've been on track, but I definitely had way too many resolutions this year!  I'm really trying to keep up with all of them!  Here's another baking experiment:

                                                                        Pesto Fantails


This past weekend I was home in NJ at my parents house and my mom was planning a dinner for my brother's family who was visiting.  I saw this as a perfect opportunity to bake something!  Seeing that we didn't need a decadent dessert, I thought about a creative bread that could accompany the meal.  My mom was making meatballs and spaghetti, and all I could think about were these yummy buttermilk fantail rolls that I saw on the cover of Gourmet last year.  I've made them a few times and I just love them.  Each roll turns out beautifully unique.  If you're looking for uniformity, you are not going to find it in this roll - but you will find tons of flavor and fun.  The rolls themselves can be made out of any type of yeast bread because they are a technique based roll - I immediately thought about my options.  


I had to make a dairy free bread because my house in NJ is kosher (can't mix meat and milk).  I started thinking of garlic knots and thought of how I could turn that concept into my dream of buttermilk fantails.  What if I made a simple pizza dough and an easy cheese free pesto??... hmm... I didn't have to think too long to realize that this had definite potential to work, and boy did they work!  They were delicious, just as fun to eat as their buttermilk version, and a much better accompaniment to meatballs and spaghetti.  My 3 and 5 year old niece and nephew even loved them!  


Next experiment I plan to make a ridiculously sweet version of these rolls! Stay tuned :)


I haven't decided if I am going to post recipes on this site yet. 
If you are interested in a recipe just email me at - cassie.berkowitz@gmail.com.