Cretan Bread
This Cretan (or Cretan-style) bread has a soft dough, enriched with olive oil, preserved tomatoes, green olives and cooked onions.
107 K 4.1/5 (24 reviews)
4 hours 30 min.
Easy
7.30 €
8 pieces
12 IngredientsLast modified on: October 24th 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
*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.
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.
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.
Leave to rise, covered with plastic as before, for 1 hour.
Stage 17 - ⌛ 2 min.
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.
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 | 157 RDI=243 % | 942 RDI=356 % | 558 RDI=765 % | 6,007 RDI=300 % | 25,150 RDI: 300 % |
| Per 100 g | 6 RDI=10 % | 39 RDI=15 % | 23 RDI=32 % | 252 RDI=13 % | 1,058 RDI: 13 % |
| Per piece | 19 RDI=30 % | 117 RDI=44 % | 69 RDI=96 % | 750 RDI=38 % | 3,144 RDI: 38 % |
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)
Plain white flour (French Type 65)
Like these other recipes: Classic French white bread, Roscoff loaf, Benoîton, Bacon rolls, Hamburger buns, ... See them all 19
Water
Like these other recipes: French baguettes, Sushi, How to cook rice in rice-cooker, Creamy risotto with diced vegetables and flax seeds, Salmon chard rolls, ... See them all 141
Onion
Like these other recipes: Vegetable stock, Paté en croute (terrine in a pie crust), Creamy risotto with diced vegetables and flax seeds, Pumpkin and red-bean tortillas, Mixed vegetable curry, ... See them all 153
Feta
Like these other recipes: Tomato and courgette tart, Pasta with cherry tomatoes, olives and feta cheese, Souda salad, Greek salad with chicken, Green beans with feta cream and cherry tomatoes, ... See them all 28
Other recipes you may also like
Sugar syrup
This syrup is mainly used as a basis for all sorbet recipes, which consist of this syrup and fruit pulp, but it can be also used to soak biscuits for example, or for fruit salads. February 21th 2011782 K3.5 8 min.
Papadums
Papadums (pronounced "poppadoms") or papad are very thin, crisp Indian crackers. They are often served as an aperitif snack in Indian restaurants. The tricky part of making them at home is rolling them out thinly enough. June 26th 2014122 K4.5 25 min.
Oatmeal cake
This cake has the distinctive and delicious flavour of old-fashioned rolled oats, also known as oatmeal. In the basic cake recipe, part of the flour is replaced with oats, which have been toasted, then blended. September 20th 2017122 K 24.2 1 hour 8 min.
Home-made breadcrumb coating
The crispy crust on many fried (or baked) foods comes from a breadcrumb coating. You can buy this, of course, but it's easy and much better to make your own at home. For one thing, you will know excatly what's in it – just bread – which is not the case for the commercial product. This is also a great way to use up bits of dry bread that would otherwise go to waste. May 26th 2024135 K1 1 hour 7 min.
Potatoes with bacon and herbs
The potatoes in this recipe are rolled in a slice of lightly cooked bacon with sage and bay leaves slipped in between. They are then baked in the oven. November 14th 201858 K5 1 hour
News list of cooking-ez.com
Sign up to receive the latest recipes (next batch due to be sent on 2026-04-26)
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Post a comment or question
Follow this recipe
If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.