Spring Bread

Prepare the flavouring mixture

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

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

We will only be using the chive flowers.

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

Take off all the flowers like this.

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.

Flavour the dough

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

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

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.

Tip the dough out onto a floured worktop.

Weigh out lumps of dough of about 300 g.

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

Roll the balls into short French sticks.

See the baguette recipe for more details in a video.

Lay the sticks in the moulds or tins.

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

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..

Leave to cool before turning out.