I think I’d like to start every post about bread by saying that I love bread. And I must say, this one is a very, very good one and it comes with a warming: if you are cooking for a few, underestimate how much bread each person will eat; we had it between two and I thought there would be some left but we ate the whole thing in just one go.
About the dough…
I may have said this before, but I am obsessed with the dough rising process, the thing is with bread is that it requires very little of your time, but it takes a long time! I started making this one around 9:30 and only put it in the oven at 13:00, just in time for lunch. As I always say, the process of the dough raising is so, so important, make sure you raise your dough in a warm room, the colder the room the longer it will take for the dough to rise. I have actually recently started to put the dough in the bedroom and turn the heating on and it probably takes only an hour to rise. It is important not to be impatient with this and always wait until the dough has doubled its size, whatever long that takes.
I love having it with butter, but I think the best thing with this bread is dipping it in some oven baked camembert or brie. So delicious…
I decided to braid the bread because is super fun and easy to make to make and it makes the bread look different. Below is a step by step on how to do the braiding.
Happy Sunday!
This is how I made it
Ingredients: bread flour, salt, warm milk, yeast, honey, butter, sage, basil, oregano, parmesan cheese, garlic.
- Mix the milk and the honey and warm it up.
- In the meantime, mix the salt, flour and yeast, then pour in the milk and honey and mix well until you start to have a dough. Flour a surface and knead the dough for about 5 minutes.
- Form a ball with the dough and put it in a oiled bowl. Let it rise in a warm room for at least an hour or until it doubles its size.
- After an hour, take the softened butter and add the garlic, parmesan, sage, oregano and basil, mix well until you have a paste.
- Take your dough and roll it on a floured surface, with a rolling pin, make the shape of a rectangle, if you are struggling with the rectangle shape, simply use a pizza cutter or a knife to cut the edges.
- Spread the butter mix over the dough covering the whole thing.
- Roll the dough from one of the long edges of the rectangle into the shape of a log.
- Cut the uneven tops and press it down with your hand, squeeze the sides with the palm of your hands to make it nice and straight. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough slightly, don’t worry if some butter comes out of the edges.
- Cut the log vertically into 3 separate strings, leave a bit of dough on top uncut so they are still linked.
- Braid the dough pinching the bottom once you have finished braiding.
- Make a round circle with the dough and leave it to rise for an extra hour.
- Cook in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until the top is nice and golden.
Garlic & herb bread
Ingredients:
- 400 gr of bread flour + more for rolling
- 290 ml of milk
- 1 tbsp of honey
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp and 1/2 of fast action dried yeast
- Olive oil
- 50 gr of salted butter softened
- 2 tbsp of fresh basil
- 1 tbsp of fresh oregano
- 1/2 tsp of sage
- 2 tbsp of parmesan (feel free to add more if you want it to be cheesier)
- 2 grated garlic cloves
Process:
- Mix the milk and the honey and warm it up.
- In the meantime, mix the yeast, salt and flour and then add the milk and the honey. Mix then well until you have a dough, then, flour a surface and knead for 5 minutes.
- Form a ball with the dough and put it in a oiled bowl. Let it rise in a warm room for at least an hour or until it doubles its size.
- After an hour, take the softened butter and add the garlic, parmesan, sage, oregano and basil, mix well until you have a paste.
- Take your dough and roll it on a floured surface, with a rolling pin, make the shape of a rectangle, if you are struggling with the rectangle shape, simply cut the edges to get to that shape.
- Spread the butter mix over the dough covering the whole thing.
- Roll the dough from one of the longer sides of the rectangle until you have a dough.
- Cut the uneven tops and press it down with your hand, squeeze the sides with the palm of your hands to make it nice and straight. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough slightly, don’t worry if some butter comes out of the edges.
- Cut the log vertically into 3 separate strings, leave a bit of dough on top uncut so they are still linked.
- Braid the dough pinching the bottom once you have finished braiding.
- Make a round circle with the dough and let it to rise for an extra hour.
- Cook in a preheated oven at 170 degrees celsius for 20-25 minutes, until the top is nice and golden.
- Serve hot or cold!
Break or Bake 