Cretan Bread


Cretan Bread
This Cretan (or Cretan-style) bread has a soft dough, enriched with olive oil, preserved tomatoes, green olives and cooked onions.
74K 24 4.1
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Last modified on: October 24th 2017

Keywords for this recipe:
For 8 pieces, you will need:

Change these quantities to make: 4 pieces 8 pieces 16 pieces 24 pieces
How long does it take?
Time required for this recipe:
PreparationRestingCookingStart to finish
38 min.3 hours 20 min.28 min.4 hours 26 min.
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Step by step recipe


Stage 1 - 3 min.
Cretan Bread

Prepare the filling


Roughly chop 150 g green olives.

Stage 2 - 5 min.
Cretan Bread
Prepare 150 g onion and slice into thin rings.

Stage 3 - 3 min.
Cretan Bread
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.

Stage 4 - 1 min.
Cretan Bread
Add the onions, 150 g feta and 150 g Preserved tomatoes to the olives...

Stage 5 - 1 min.
Cretan Bread
...then mix all this together.

Stage 6
Cretan Bread
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.
Cretan Bread
Put into a food processer bowl: 1 kg plain white flour (French Type 65) *, 650 g 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.

Stage 8 - 16 min.
Cretan Bread
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.
Cretan Bread
Towards the end of kneading, add 50 g olive oil in a thin stream.

Stage 10
Cretan Bread
Tip: you can use the oil from the preserved (or sun-dried) tomatoes as the olive oil.

Stage 11 - 1 min.
Cretan Bread
Finish by adding 1 tablespoon dry oregano.

Stage 12 - 1 min.
Cretan Bread
Add the filling mixture...

Stage 13 - 2 min.
Cretan Bread
...and knead just enough to mix this in.

Stage 14 - 2 hours
Cretan Bread
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.
Cretan Bread
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
Cretan Bread
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.
Cretan Bread
Preheat the oven to 480°F (250°C).

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

Stage 18 - 25 min.
Cretan Bread
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
Whole recipe
Energetic valueProteins CarbohydratesFats
5,434 Kcal or 22,751 Kj142 gr823 gr239 gr
272 %55 %78 %36 %
Per 100 g
Energetic valueProteins CarbohydratesFats
228 Kcal or 955 Kj6 gr35 gr10 gr
11 %2 %3 %2 %
Per piece
Energetic valueProteins CarbohydratesFats
679 Kcal or 2,843 Kj18 gr103 gr30 gr
34 %7 %10 %5 %
% are calculated relative to a Recommended Dietary Intake or RDI of 2000 k-calories or 8400 k-joules by day for a woman (change to a man).
Possible allergens in this recipe: Milk, Gluten
How much will it cost?
  • For 8 pieces : 7.29 €
  • Per piece : 0.91 €

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)
Plain white flour (French Type 65)Plain white flour (French Type 65): You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Seeded loaf, Ali Baba bread, Roscoff loaf, Ocean bread, Poitevin twist, ... All
WaterWater: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Mojito peaches, Choux pastry (pâte à choux), Kouign-amann, Chocolate eclairs, Eggs meurette, ... All
FetaFeta: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Pasta with cherry tomatoes, olives and feta cheese, Kalamata Salad, Cretan-style salmon , Tzatziki, Feta in olive oil with herbs, ... All
Green olivesGreen olives: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Two-olive ciabatta, Olive and pesto bread, Tomato foccacia, Loaf for "les filles'", ... All
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