Cretan Bread

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 8 pieces, you will need:

• 1 150 g green olives
• 2 150 g onion
• 3 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 150 g feta
• 5 150 g preserved tomatoes
• 6 1 kg plain white flour (French Type 65)
• 7 650 ml water
• 8 18 g fine (or table) salt
• 9 15 g yeast
• 10 100 g leaven (optional)
• 11 50 g olive oil
• 12 1 tablespoon dry oregano
• Total weight: 2,380 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
40 min.	3 hours 20 min.	30 min.	4 hours 30 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Prepare the filling Roughly chop 150 g green olives.
2	Prepare 150 g onion and slice into thin rings.
3	Pour 2 tablespoons olive oil into a saucepan on medium heat. Add the onions, salt and pepper, then mix well. Cook uncovered without colouring for 2 or 3 minutes.
4	Add the onions, 150 g feta and 150 g preserved tomatoes to the olives...
5	...then mix all this together.
6	In bread-making, the water temperature is always important. It's not a fixed value, but related to 3 other temperatures: 1) the temperature of your flour, 2) the room temperature in your kitchen, and 3) the basic temperature of this recipe, which is 56-60°C. You can calculate the temperature of the water for this recipe in one click, using this small calculator.
7	Put into a food processer bowl: 1 kg plain white flour (French Type 65) *, 650 ml water, 18 g fine (or table) salt, 15 g yeast and 100 g leaven. *You can use a "strong" bread flour, if this is available.
8	Knead on slow speed for 16 minutes. Note: For the best way to knead, see: A few tips for effective kneading at home.
9	Towards the end of kneading, add 50 g olive oil in a thin stream.
10	Tip: you can use the oil from the preserved (or sun-dried) tomatoes as the olive oil.
11	Finish by adding 1 tablespoon dry oregano.
12	Add the filling mixture...
13	...and knead just enough to mix this in.
14	Gather the dough into a ball, transfer to a large, clean bowl and cover with a plastic sheet. Leave to rest for 2 hours.
15	After resting, weigh out the dough into 300 g lumps and shape into balls. Leave these to rest for 30 minutes, covered with a plastic sheet (so that they do not form a crust).
16	After this, reshape the balls and put into "bannetons" (baskets). Leave to rise, covered with plastic as before, for 1 hour.
17	Preheat the oven to 480°F (250°C). Just before putting in the oven, slash the top of the bread.
18	Bake for about 25 minutes.

Remarks

If you don't have any oregano, you can use thyme or a mix like "herbes de Provence" instead.
The yeast can be replaced with 300 g of soured dough.

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