1,479 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

Cretan Bread

This Cretan (or Cretan-style) bread has a soft dough, enriched with olive oil, preserved tomatoes, green olives and cooked onions.

87 K 4.1/5 (24 reviews)

4 hours 30 min. difficulté

Easy

7.30 €

4 pieces

12 Ingredients

Last modified on: October 24^th 2017

For this recipe: I want to make it (334×) I made it (275×) Comment Send to a friend Ask a question Follow Printable Diaporama Vidéo User-friendly URL

For 4 pieces, you will need:

1 75 g green olives
2 75 g onion
3 1 tablespoon olive oil
4 75 g feta
5 75 g preserved tomatoes
6 500 g plain white flour (French Type 65)
7 325 g water
8 9 g fine (or table) salt
9 7.5 g yeast
10 50 g leaven (optional)
11 25 g olive oil
12 ½ tablespoon dry oregano
Total weight: 1,190 grams

Change these quantities to make:

4 pieces 8 pieces 16 pieces 24 pieces

Change measures:

Metric

Metric weight Metric volumes

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 40 min.

Resting: 3 hours 20 min.

Cooking: 30 min.

All in all: 4 hours 30 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 - 3 min.

Prepare the filling

Roughly chop 75 g green olives.

Stage 2 - 5 min.

Prepare 75 g onion and slice into thin rings.

Stage 3 - 3 min.

Pour 1 tablespoon 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.

Stage 4 - 1 min.

Add the onions, 75 g feta and 75 g preserved tomatoes to the olives...

Stage 5 - 1 min.

...then mix all this together.

Stage 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.

Stage 7 - 5 min.

Put into a food processer bowl: 500 g plain white flour (French Type 65) *, 325 g water, 9 g fine (or table) salt, 7.5 g yeast and 50 g leaven.

*You can use a "strong" bread flour, if this is available.

Stage 8 - 20 min.

Knead on slow speed for 16 minutes.

Note: For the best way to knead, see: A few tips for effective kneading at home.

Stage 9 - 1 min.

Towards the end of kneading, add 25 g olive oil in a thin stream.

Stage 10

Tip: you can use the oil from the preserved (or sun-dried) tomatoes as the olive oil.

Stage 11 - 1 min.

Finish by adding ½ tablespoon dry oregano.

Stage 12 - 1 min.

Add the filling mixture...

Stage 13 - 2 min.

...and knead just enough to mix this in.

Stage 14 - 2 hours

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

Leave to rest for 2 hours.

Stage 15 - 20 min.

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).

Stage 16 - 1 hour

After this, reshape the balls and put into "bannetons" (baskets).

Leave to rise, covered with plastic as before, for 1 hour.

Stage 17 - 2 min.

Preheat the oven to 480°F (250°C).

Just before putting in the oven, slash the top of the bread.

Stage 18 - 25 min.

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.

Keeping: A few days in a cloth bag. Freezes well.

Source: Home made but dedicated to Arnaud the french-cretan guy.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	80 RDI=30 %	470 RDI=40 %	280 RDI=40 %	3,000 RDI=150 %	12,580 RDI: 150 %
Per 100 g	6 RDI=3 %	40 RDI=4 %	20 RDI=4 %	250 RDI=10 %	1,060 RDI: 10 %
Per piece	20 RDI=8 %	120 RDI=10 %	70 RDI=10 %	750 RDI=40 %	3,140 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 Change to a man

Possible allergens in this recipe: Milk, Gluten

How much will it cost?

For 4 pieces : 3.65 €
Per piece : 0.95 €

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)

Other recipes you may also like

Almond dacquoise

A dacquoise is a sort of almond meringue that can be eaten like a biscuit or can be used as the base of more sophisticated desserts.
June 28^th 2011203 K5 45 min.

Chestnut cake

This delightful cake is doubly chestnutty: it contains chestnut flour, and sweet chestnut purée.
May 8^th 2020336 K5 1 hour 15 min.

Epiphany galette

Here is the recipe for the very classic but delicious "galette des rois" (Epiphany galette) in puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) with almond cream or frangipane . You will also see some professional tips to easily handle the dough, and obtain a nice and regular galette.
January 1^st 2025292 K 24.5 3 hours 8 min.

Bouquet garni

Used very frequently in French cuisine, a secret of French chefs, it adds flavour to a lot of recipes, and it's easy to prepare. The basic principle is to make a small bundle of herbs, bind them in green leek leaves and to tie it up, so that the whole thing can be removed and discarded easily after...
March 21^th 2017416 K3.5 15 min.

Almond cream or frangipane

Light and delicious, it is used in a lot of desserts like tarts, cakes and pies (epiphany galette).
January 23^th 2022457 K 25 45 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.