Name: Spring Bread
Prep time: 3 h 22 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 4 h 2 min
Yield: 5 loaves
Cuisine: french
Ingredients: 250 g Parmigiano reggiano (Parmesan); 250 g Preserved tomatoes; chives; pepper; 1 kg bread dough

Spring Bread

Spring bread is flavoured with little pieces of preserved tomatoes, Parmesan and chive flowers (hence the name, as the flowers only appear for a brief period in spring).

Shaped into long loaves or thin sticks, slices of this bread make a delicious aperitif snack.

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Last modified on: October 24^th 2017

Preparation

Resting

Cooking

Start to finish

1 hour 32 min.

1 hour 50 min.

40 min.

4 hours 2 min.

Step by step recipe

Stage 1

4 min.

Prepare the flavouring mixture

Cut 250 g Parmigiano reggiano (Parmesan) into small dice and put in a bowl.

Stage 2

4 min.

Drain 250 g Preserved tomatoes and cut into small pieces. Add to the bowl.

Stage 3

We will only be using the chive flowers.

Stage 4

Pull apart the flower heads directly over the bowl and discard the stalks, which are very tough.

Stage 5

4 min.

Take off all the flowers like this.

Stage 6

2 min.

Pour 2 or 3 tablespoonsful of the oil from the preserved tomatoes into the bowl, salt and pepper, then mix everything together.

Note: if you cannot drain any oil off the preserved tomatoes, use herb olive oil or, if you have nothing else, plain olive oil.

Stage 7

1 min.

Flavour the dough

Put 1 kg bread dough into a food-processor bowl and tip the flavouring mixture in on top.

Stage 8

2 min.

Knead for 2 or 3 minutes, just until evenly mixed in.

Stage 9

1 hour

Gather the dough into a ball and transfer to a large, clean bowl, covered with a plastic sheet.

Leave to rest for 1 hour.

Stage 10

8 min.

Tip the dough out onto a floured worktop.

Weigh out lumps of dough of about 300 g.

Stage 11

20 min.

Shape into balls, cover with a plastic sheet and leave to rest for 20 minutes.

Stage 12

7 min.

Roll the balls into short French sticks.

See the baguette recipe for more details in a video.

Stage 13

1 hour 30 min.

Lay the sticks in the moulds or tins.

Cover with a sheet of plastic and leave to rest for 1 hour 30 minutes.

Stage 14

40 min.

Bake the loaves

Preheat the oven to 460°F (240°C).

Slash the tops of the loaves and bake for about 40 minutes.

Note: As when baking any bread, you should ensure that the oven is filled with steam for the first 15 minutes of baking. This page shows you how; it really is the secret of golden-brown, crusty loaves..

Stage 15

Leave to cool before turning out.