Easy Olive Baguette

It's been a couple of years now, that we almost don't buy bread at home - I prefer to make it myself. This gives me the freedom to experiment with various types of flour, recipes, forms and additives. Today's recipe is one of the variations of my usual bread recipe, but with a twist - literal and figurative :)

Ingredients:

• 300 g all purpose flour
• 200 g lukewarm water
• 7 g fresh yeast or 3 g dry yeast
• salt, sugar or honey, oregano
• two tbsp olive oil
• pitted olives

Preparation:

Activate the yeast with some of the water and the honey. I add a small teaspoon of honey in the water and stir, until the honey and the yeast have dissolved. In a bowl measure the flour, add salt and oregano, mix. Add the yeast and the rest of the water, mix everything well and thorough, until the entire flour is absorbed. At this stage I do not add the olive oil. 

Leave the dough covered to rest and rise for 30-45 min in a warm place (I put my bowl in the oven with the light on). When the dough has doubled, add the olive oil and fold the dough a dozen times, then leave again to rise for at least an hour.

When the dough has doubled again, spread it on a floured surface, cover it with the olives, cut into small pieces, then cut the dough into four and form four baguettes. I made mine by rolling the ends toward the center and enclosing the olives inside, then I twisted the roll a few times.

Cover the baguettes and leave them for the last time to rise. This recipe has no kneading, you need only time and patience. Once the baguettes have doubled again after an hour, brush them generously with olive oil and put the tray in a preheated oven at 250C for 15 min. I put a metal container with water at the bottom of the oven to get a crispy crust. After the 15 min are over, turn the oven temperature to 200C and bake for another 10 min.

These baguettes are so delicious, that you can snack with them directly like buns, or enjoy them with feta cheese, vegetable spreads or any other way you enjoy your bread.

Bread with Dried Tomatoes

I've been planning to make this bread for centuries and finally I got to it today. It is a very delicious bread with strong Mediterranean flavour, which we all love. Only a couple of minutes ago my son came to me and told me:
- You have to make two loaves next time. It's very delicious and it's almost gone.
- But I did, I did make two loaves. This is the second loaf. We ate the whole first loaf at lunch.
- Then you have to make three loaves next time. :)))

Ingredients:

• 500 g flour
• 7 g instant dry yeast
• 250 ml warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• a handful of dried tomatoes, soaked in olive oil
• 3 tbsp olive oil (from the tomatoes)
• oregano

Mix the ingredients in a bowl, knead the dough and leave to rise. I use quick rise - about 45 min in an oven at 40C. After the dough has doubled its volume, cut into two balls, knead and make two loaves. Leave them to rise again in the oven at 40C for about 30 min.

Make deep decorative cuts in the loaves, cover with flour and place in the oven to bake at 180C. When the bread is well baked take it out of the oven and place the loaves on a rack to cool. You can also add cut olives to the dough for even stronger Mediterranean taste.