1,534 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Cretan Bread

Name: Cretan Bread
Prep time: 3 h 58 min
Cook time: 28 min
Total time: 4 h 26 min
Yield: 8 pieces
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 150 g green olives; 150 g onion; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 150 g feta; 150 g preserved tomatoes; 1 kg plain white flour (French Type 65); 650 ml water; 18 g fine (or table) salt; 15 g yeast; 100 g leaven; 50 g olive oil; 1 tablespoon dry oregano

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

103 K 4.1/5 (24 reviews)

4 hours 30 min. difficulté

Easy

7.30 €

8 pieces

12 Ingredients

Last modified on: October 24^th 2017

For 8 pieces, you will need:

1 150 g green olives
2 150 g onion
3 2 tablespoons olive oil
4 150 g feta
5 150 g preserved tomatoes
6 1 kg plain white flour (French Type 65)
7 650 ml water
8 18 g fine (or table) salt
9 15 g yeast
10 100 g leaven (optional)
11 50 g olive oil
12 1 tablespoon dry oregano
Total weight: 2,380 grams

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 150 g green olives.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 5 min.

Prepare 150 g onion and slice into thin rings.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 3 min.

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.

Add the onions, 150 g feta and 150 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: 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.

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 50 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 1 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	160 RDI=60 %	940 RDI=90 %	560 RDI=90 %	6,010 RDI=300 %	25,150 RDI: 300 %
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 %

Possible allergens in this recipe: milk, Gluten

How much will it cost?

For 8 pieces : 7.30 €
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

Parisian-style chocolate custard tart

You may well already have met the classic French custard tart, with its vanilla filling. Here is a delicious chocolate-flavoured version.

July 13^th 202267 K 1 hour 8 min.

French baguettes

This classic of French baking is rather different from the recipe for leavened bread, it's a question of making a good crust and light crumb along the whole length. To succeed, you should know that there are two secrets: water first of all (much more than for normal bread), and the working of the dough, which is also very different.

October 24^th 20171.10 M 364.7 5 hours 6 min.

Ratatouille confite

In this ratatouille recipe, the vegetables are cooked longer than usual to get a richer melting dish.

June 12^th 2011232 K 13.8 2 hours 40 min.

Nonettes

Nonettes are small, jam-filled cakes from a bygone age. They originated in Dijon, where they were made by nuns (hence the name, which means "little nun" in French). The traditional version is closer to the French "pain d'épices", but this recipe has a more of a citrus flavour, made with marmalade.

June 2^nd 2015106 K4.4 1 hour 50 min.

Crispy prawn rolls

The prawns are fried, then mixed with finely diced carrots and courgettes before being rolled up in a sheet of brik or filo pastry.

July 27^th 201497 K4.8 35 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

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