Halloumi and Mint Bread
This is based on a recipe from Paul Hollywood’s “100 Great Breads” book. It’s a traditional Cypriot bread.
I served it with lamb chops, Greek salad and grilled halloumi.
I think it would be nice served with a BBQ or with a hearty soup in winter.
You could replace 100g of the white baker’s flour with 100g of white or wholemeal spelt flour if you like.
I think you could also replace around 50g of the halloumi with a stronger cheese like parmesan, for a stronger cheese flavour.
Ingredients:
300g warm water
40g olive oil
2 teaspoons dried yeast
500g white baker’s flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dried mint
250g halloumi (crumbled into pieces 1 to 2 cms in size)
Place all the ingredients (except the halloumi) into the TMX bowl. Don’t let the salt touch the yeast.
Knead for 3 minutes
(check the dough whilst kneading and add a little more water if required)
Add the halloumi and knead for another 2 minutes. The halloumi will break up a bit and be incorporated into the dough, but you will still be able to see small pieces of cheese thoughout.
Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with gladwrap and leave until it doubles in size, about an hour. Or leave it in the TMX until it doubles in size.
Tip the dough onto a surface that has been sprinkled with flour and semolina. Knead it by hand a bit and then shape into an oval.
Place the shaped dough onto a tray lined with baking paper and leave it again to double in size (1/2 to 1 hour).
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.
Place the bread into the oven. Put a small tray of water in the bottom of the oven, to help generate steam.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the tray of water from the oven and take the bread off of the baking tray and place the bread back into the oven, just on the oven rack (without the tray) and bake for a further 10 minutes or until it’s cooked.
Using Chookies method of checking if the bread is cooked - use a digital thermometer to ensure the internal temperature of the bread is more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
