I love bread, it’s honestly one of the best things in the world for me. I love having it with absolutely anything. My family would have it on the table at all times with our meals, so it’s not surprising that I love it so much.

This bread is super easy, but it takes time to make, so I would advise to either do it the night before if you want it for lunch time, or in the morning if you want it for dinner.

I don’t use any special tools to make my bread, I like using my hands and I love kneading it, I like feeling the dough in my hands, it’s actually quite relaxing? The great thing is that you can literally add anything you want to this, I am thinking about some walnuts next time? Or maybe a bit of rosemary, the possibilities are endless!

Olive and sundried tomato bread

Ingredients:

• 240 ml of warm water
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of dry yeast
• 2 tsp of sugar
• 2 tsp of salt
• 3 tbsp of good quality olive oil plus a bit extra for coating
• 350 gr of flour bread
• 1/2 tsp of dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp of dried basil
• A bit of ground black pepper
• Olives and sundried tomatoes to taste, I used kalamata olives

Process:

1. Mix the yeast, the warm water, the sugar and the salt and let it sit for around 10 minutes until it becomes foamy.
2. In a large bowl, add the flour, the pepper, the oregano and the basil and mix them. Make a little hole in the middle and add the water mix.
3. Once it’s mixed and starting to look like a dough, slightly flour a surface and put knead the dough for at least 5 minutes. Add the sundried tomato and the olives and make sure they are distributed evenly in the dough. Give the dough the shape of a ball and put it in a slightly oiled large bowl. Make sure that the whole ball is oiled. Cover it with a kitchen cloth and let it raise for at least an hour or until doubles size. The raising speed will depend on the temperature of the room, the warmer the quicker.

4. After the dough has risen, punch it down and give it again a round shape. Put it in a tray covered in parchment paper and cover it with a round bowl so it keeps it shape. That tray will be the one that will be used to put it in the oven. Let it rise again for another hour so it doubles size again.

5. After it’s risen, sprinkle a bit of sea salt and bake in a preheated oven at 190 celsius for 25-30 minutes, spray the loaf every 15 minutes with water to keep it moist. After the 25-30 minutes, increase the temperature to 220 celsius and cook until the top has a lovely golden colour.