Name: Spring Bread
Prep time: 1 h 32 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 4 h 2 min
Yield: 5 loaves
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 250 g Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano); 250 g preserved tomatoes; Chives; Pepper; 1 kg bread dough

Step by step recipe

Step 1 - ⌛ 4 min.

Prepare the flavouring mixture

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

Step 2 - ⌛ 4 min.

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

Step 3

We will only be using the chive flowers.

Step 4

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

Step 5 - ⌛ 4 min.

Take off all the flowers like this.

Step 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.

Step 7 - ⌛ 1 min.

Flavour the dough

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

Step 8 - ⌛ 2 min.

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

Step 9 - ⌛ 1 hour

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.

Step 10 - ⌛ 8 min.

Tip the dough out onto a floured worktop.

Weigh out lumps of dough of about 300 g.

Step 11 - ⌛ 20 min.

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

Step 12 - ⌛ 7 min.

Roll the balls into short French sticks.

See the baguette recipe for more details in a video.

Step 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.

Step 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..

Step 15

Leave to cool before turning out.

Nutritional information

	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats	Calories	Energy
Per 100 g	11 g RDI=17 %	34 g RDI=13 %	11 g RDI=15 %	275 kcal RDI=14 %	1,151 kJ RDI=14 %
Per loave	33 g RDI=50 %	101 g RDI=38 %	33 g RDI=45 %	825 kcal RDI=41 %	3,454 kJ RDI=41 %
Whole recipe	163 g RDI=250 %	503 g RDI=190 %	163 g RDI=223 %	4,125 kcal RDI=206 %	17,271 kJ RDI=206 %