Spring Bread


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.
81 K 4.7/5 (6 reviews)
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Last modified on: October 24th 2017
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For 5 loaves, you will need:

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Times for this recipe
Preparation: 1 hour 35 min.
Resting: 1 hour 50 min.
Cooking: 40 min.
All in all: 4 hours 2 min.
When should you start or finish this recipe?
If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time
To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe


Stage 1 - ⌛ 4 min.
Spring Bread : Stage 1

Prepare the flavouring mixture


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

Stage 2 - ⌛ 4 min.
Spring Bread : Stage 2
Drain 250 g preserved tomatoes and cut into small pieces. Add to the bowl.

Stage 3
Spring Bread : Stage 3
We will only be using the chive flowers.

Stage 4
Spring Bread : Stage 4
Pull apart the flower heads directly over the bowl and discard the stalks, which are very tough.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 4 min.
Spring Bread : Stage 5
Take off all the flowers like this.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 2 min.
Spring Bread : Stage 6
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.
Spring Bread : Stage 7

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.
Spring Bread : Stage 8
Knead for 2 or 3 minutes, just until evenly mixed in.

Stage 9 - ⌛ 1 hour
Spring Bread : Stage 9

Make the loaves


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.
Spring Bread : Stage 10
Tip the dough out onto a floured worktop.

Weigh out lumps of dough of about 300 g.

Stage 11 - ⌛ 20 min.
Spring Bread : Stage 11
Shape into balls, cover with a plastic sheet and leave to rest for 20 minutes.

Stage 12 - ⌛ 7 min.
Spring Bread : Stage 12
Roll the balls into short French sticks.

See the baguette recipe for more details in a video.

Stage 13 - ⌛ 1 hour 30 min.
Spring Bread : Stage 13
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.
Spring Bread : Stage 14

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
Spring Bread : Stage 15
Leave to cool before turning out.
Remarks
You can add a few finely chopped chives in with the flowers.

For the bread dough, I suggest you use the french baguettes recipe.

You might also like to take a look at this page all about bread.
Keeping: Several days, wrapped in a cloth.
Source: Home made.
Nutritional information
Proteins (gr)Carbohydrates (gr)Fats (gr)Energy value (in k-calories)Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe1,530 RDI=590 %11,540 RDI=1,090 %900 RDI=140 %4,170 RDI=210 %17,460 RDI: 210 %
Per 100 g100 RDI=40 %770 RDI=70 %60 RDI=9 %280 RDI=10 %1,160 RDI: 10 %
Per loave310 RDI=120 %2,310 RDI=220 %180 RDI=30 %830 RDI=40 %3,490 RDI: 40 %
The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman
Possible allergens in this recipe: milk, Gluten
How much will it cost?
  • For 5 loaves : 7.45 €
  • Per loave : 1.50 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.
This recipe uses (among others)
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