Cretan Bread

Prepare the filling

Roughly chop 150 g green olives.

Prepare 150 g onion and slice into thin rings.

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.

Add the onions, 150 g feta and 150 g preserved tomatoes to the olives...

...then mix all this together.

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.

Put into a food processer bowl: 1 kg plain white flour (French Type 65) *, 650 ml 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.

Knead on slow speed for 16 minutes.

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

Towards the end of kneading, add 50 g olive oil in a thin stream.

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

Finish by adding 1 tablespoon dry oregano.

Add the filling mixture...

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

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

Leave to rest for 2 hours.

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).

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

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

Preheat the oven to 480°F (250°C).

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

Bake for about 25 minutes.