A new twist on some basic bread
It's pretty tasty and is great for sandwiches, but I had grown a little bored with the loaf. It will remain my standard bread, but I decided to experiment a bit and see if I could make something a little different using the same basic recipe.
Looking around the kitchen I found some cilantro and some sun-dried tomatoes. They sounded like good additions to a basic bread so I chopped and mixed and kneaded and came up with a new special occasion bread for the simple Easter spread.
We didn't have everyone over for a meal this year. The kids are at an age where they have their own lives which aren't quite settled into a routine, as I imagine they will be in a decade or so. So we keep it casual...come when you can, enjoy a bit of this and some of that and head to the next destination. In-laws, outlaws, steps and others have all invited them and they have to make an appearance at each place.
So, the buffet included a hunk of traditional flesh that they all enjoy, a salad, some roasted yellow and zucchini squash, smashed potatoes, honied sweet potatoes slathered in butter, cilantro and sundried tomato loaves and some sweets. Nothing fancy, but hearty and tasty.
Grab a plate, sit down and talk for a while. That's what family holidays are for, n'est pas?
Cilantro and Sundried Tomato Bread
5 to 6 cups of flour
4 packages (9 teaspoons) of dry yeast
1 tablespoon of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 cups of warm water
1 small bunch of cilantro, leaves only, chopped roughly
6 sundried tomatoes, rehydrated in water and then drained, chopped coarsely
- Put 4 cups of the flour, the salt and the sugar in a large bowl and mix them well. Add the water and stir until it starts getting difficult to do so (about 100 strokes). Add the rest of the flour about half a cup at time, stirring while you can and then mixing with your fingers.
- Mix the cilantro and the tomatoes in with the dough. Make sure the leaves and tomato pieces are mixed all the way through.
- Knead for about 6 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
- Put the dough in a greased bowl, roll the dough over a few times in the bowl so it is nicely greased, and then cover it with a cloth and let it rise for 15 minutes. (When it’s ready for the next step, a dent will remain in the dough when you poke it with your finger.)
- When it’s ready, punch it down and cut in two. Knead each piece for 30 seconds and form each into a loaf (round or oblong, whichever you prefer) and put them on a greased baking sheet or a perforated bread pan. Cut slits along the top of each loaf with a razor or very sharp knife and brush the loaves with water.
- Put the rack on the middle shelf of a cold oven; put a shallow pan filled with water on the bottom shelf. Slide the bread onto the top shelf and turn the oven on at 400 degrees.
- Bake for about 45-50 minutes, turning once about half way through the process.
- The bread is done when it makes a hollow noise when you thump the bottom of it with your fingers.
