Recipe Review: Olive, Feta and Rosemary Bread - QFITT

[cecilia]

This is proving cooking now.  Delicious flavour combination.  Patience is required compared with the bread roll recipe from demonstration, as you rest the mixture after adding the yeast then prove for an hour and an extra half hour before baking.

Question for Alyce - why the guideline to put the dish of water at the bottom of the oven, please?

I am learning a lot from working through Alyce's book slowly and I can't wait till this bread comes out of the oven.

[judydawn]

What was the end product like Cecilia?

[alyce alexandra]

Hi Cecila,

Great to hear you have been cooking from the book and enjoying it!

The extra proving time makes for a lighter bread in general, and over all a higher quality bread texture.  My understanding of the demo and cooking class is that there is not sufficient time for proper proving, but given that the bread is eaten straight away you can pull off a wow factor anyway.

The water in the bottom of the oven creates steam during the cooking time and forms a crust on the bread. Therefore to reduce a crusty effect on the loaf, you would leave the water out.

alyce

[cecilia]

Thank you very much, Alyce.  I told you I was learning - I do so all the time on the forum, but it's particularly exciting and beneficial that, as I'm using your book, you're coaching and encouraging me from the sidelines.  "Just in time" learning - and at no cost.  People who say the book is costly at $50 when you get that sort of feedback factored in just don't understand the potential of this forum and the enthusiasm of a generous, newly-published author.

JD - There certainly was a nice big crust, so I thought it was cooked before it was.

I'm pretty inexperienced at cooking freeform cob loaves of bread.  I do demos all the time, at which I make small rolls, so they cook very quickly.

But the family loved it and didn't mind that I served the most cooked bits then put the rest back in for a bit more time.

It's embarrassing to say that when Alyce is going to be reading.  It was no fault of the recipe, just that we were so keen to have a try.


Recipe: 5/5  My rendition this first time:  2/5 if third parties could see, but we ate it with gusto in the privacy of home.

[alyce alexandra]

Thanks so much for the kind words Cecilia, so glad to be able to be of assistance!

Alyce xo

[achookwoman]

Cecilia,  deciding when the bread is cooked is difficult.  Even experienced experts like Dan Lepard recommend, using a thermometer.  I have resisted this method of deciding if a loaf is cooked,for many many years.  I now use a thermometer.    When you think it is/ should be cooked,  stick it in the thickest part,  into the middle of the loaf.  If it registers between 200/210 degrees Fahrenheit it is cooked.  If not,  give it a few more minutes,  depending on how under cooked it is.   Andi provided this info.

[cecilia]

Thank you, Chookie, Andie and Alyce.  So there is such a thing as a bread thermometer?

[Bonsai]

I think you could use any food thermometer - you can buy digital probes inexpensively from most kitchen shops and can use them to test internal temp of any food

[CreamPuff63]

This smells lovely! Will let you know what it tastes like after dinner tonight  

After Dinner: should be renamed Mmn Mmn Bread. No one said anything other than this when they were eating it.  5/5

[VieveMS]

Now that I have the Thermomix, I thought it was time to try my hand at bread making. When I first looked through Alyces' book this was one of the recipes that caught my eye - olives and feta - what's not to like?

I didn't look closely at the quantities required before I went shopping so I ended up using slightly less olives than stated in the recipe but I don't think this impacted the finished product. This bread is delicious, especially served warm (straight from the oven) with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Another great recipe from Alyce. Definitely 5/5.

[Tasty]

The name of this bread appealed to me so I thought I'd give it a go. I stuffed it up from the first step when it said to set aside the wheat grains I had just milled. Regardless, it turned out ok and was a little dense. Hubby really liked the flavours as did my 2 year old however I found it a bit salty and would not include the extra teaspoon of salt next time.

[cookie1]

Thanks Tasty. I think I will follow your advice and leave out the extra salt. Olives are quite salty and so is feta.

[Tasty]

Hubby seems to think it's perfect as is and managed to go through about 80% of it on his own in one day!