Had some leftover basil and tomatoes from Xmas lunch and decided to put them too good use by baking a vegetable bread.
Imagine the heavenly flavours of ripe tomatoes, fresh garden basil, sweet red onions and garlic...all combined in a freshly baked loaf of bread!! Love all 3 of these ingredients and knew even before I started it would be a very aromatic bread and glad I was not proven wrong. Let's just say it smelt absolutely divine while baking in the oven. Was contemplating adding in some bacon, now that would have been a meal complete itself!!Great with a little butter or dipped with extra virgin olive oil. We finally ate it with some cold ham and it was awesome. Made me regret for not doubling the recipe in the first place!
B-U-T kneading in the tomato & basil ingredients proved to be a rather tacky exercise and my hand was covered with soft sticky dough.
Recalled Richard Bertinet wise tip not to give up no matter how sticky the dough gets, just continue to knead and it will all come together in the end. It was tough ignoring the mess as more dough seemed to wanna stay on my hands instead of the dough itself. Resist the urge to clean or wipe your hands - its not easy to have 'clean hands' baking bread, persist and....yes, it did and will come come together in the end *phew :) *
Recipe by J.Shapter
Veggie mix
100g plum tomato, skinned, de-seeded and cut into cubes
1 small onion, sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp basil, minced finely
1. Cook onion and garlic with some olive oil on a frying pan for few minutes until onion is light golden in colour.
2. Add tomatoes and cook for another 3 minutes until slightly softened.
3. Place cooked mixture into a sieve and with the back of the spoon, gently extract the vegetable juices and reserve for later use.
4. Set aside cooked vegetables for later use.
Bread dough
1/2 tsp dried yeast
250g bread flour
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
240g liquid (mixture of reserved vegetable liquid (refer to above), water and 1 tsp tomato paste) Freshly cracked black pepper
5. Combine mixture together and knead for 15-20 min until you get a soft pliable dough.
6. Knead in cooked vegetables and basil. You may need extra flour if dough is too moist when you incorporate the vegetable mixture.
7. Shape dough into a loaf or bartard. You can also add a few slashes before baking (I forgot mine and thought I'd go for a dimple instead but it got a little lost after it 'bloomed' in the oven).
8. Set aside covered and rest for 1 hour.
9. Glaze top of bread with mixture of egg yolk and water or milk.
10. Bake in preheated oven of 200 degrees for 30-45 min.
Bench notes – for a larger loaf, you can double the recipe.
Its been a while but am sharing this yummy bread for yeastspotting hosted by dear Susan of WildYeast!
