This is a simple bread that has a light and fluffy inside and a beautiful hard crust on the outside and with a delicious taste of olive oil (make sure you use one with good quality). Since I am such a big fan of baking bread in my Le Creuset pot, that’s what I did here as well. I decided to bake my bread with bread flour (white) but you can definitely replace some of the amount with whole wheat flour. Like always when baking bread and buns, the amount of flour is NOT preciously. That is very up to what kind of flour you use, how fresh/old it is so please take my measurement as “approximately” and don’t add too much.
Ingredients (1 big loaf or 2 small)
- 2 tsp active yeast
- 1 2/5 cups water
- 1/3 cup olive oil (good quality)
- 1 tbsp liquid honey
- 1/3 cup natural yoghurt (not greek yoghurt)
- 2 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 – 4 1/2 cups bread flour
Add the yeast and 1 cup of the flour into a stand mixer bowl. Mix it together and let shortly rest.
Heat the water to 98ºF in a sauce pan. Add the olive oil and honey and mix it together. Pour the water mix into the stand mixer bowl and mix with the yeast and small amount of flour. Then add the yoghurt and the salt.
Now add the rest of the flour, but in small batches. You might not need the whole amount, so make sure you wait in between the batches to see how the dough looks like. You have enough flour when the dough starts (!) to come off from the sides. Let the stand mixer knead the dough for a long time (min. 15 minutes). The longer the dough is knead, the better bread result.
Let the dough ferment in the bowl covered with a tea towel for 40 minutes.
Take up the dough and fold the bread’s sides into the bottom middle. The dough should be smooth. If you use a pot for your baking, add some olive oil and then place the dough into the pot. Ferment, with lid, for another 30 minutes.
Pre heat the oven to 425ºF.
Use a sharp knife and cut diagonally cuts over the bread’s top. This is just to make it look nice. Sprinkle some flour over the bread. Put on the lid on the pot. Bake the bread in the oven for approximately 30 minutes. Then take off the lid and bake for another 10 minutes or until the surface of the bread has a really crunchy and light brown crust.
Take out the bread from the oven, but wait approximately 30 minutes before you slice the bread.
Smaklig måltid!
Scandinavian Simple Eating 