Sheila's Olive-Fennel Bread

Yesterday, a friend shared with me her recipe for homemade bread. The bread looks and tastes like artisan bread from a local farmer's market. So delicious!

The recipe below can be varied from olive bread to raisin walnut or garlic depending upon what you add to the mix. We made two batches, one olive-fennel and the other without the olives and with an additional touch of sesame oil.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 cup soaked & cooked wheat berries

1 cup bran flakes

6 cups all purpose flour

2 cups olives (olives can be switched out with raisins, nuts, cinnamon, garlic, cheese, etc)

2 3/4 cups of liquid (water or olive juice)

heaping T of yeast

handful of fennel

handful of oat flakes

Measure yeast into a small bowl and add 1/2 cup of warm water. Stir gently and let rest for 5 minutes or until it starts to foam.

Having a Kitchen Aid for this recipe helps though it is not necessary. Place all ingredients (except for the oat flakes) into the Kitchen Aid and use the dough hook on a slow setting to mix. If not using a Kitchen Aid then stir ingredients together in a large bowl and transfer the dough to a surface sprinkled with flour and knead by hand to continue the mixing.

Add 1 T grapeseed oil to another large bowl. Once the ingredients are mixed together well then add the dough to the bowl and cover well with the oil. Cover the bowl with a plastic bag and set it aside in a warm place to let it rise. We placed the bowl on top of an oven set to 250˚ and occassionally rotated the bowl so that it warmed evenly.

The rising time may vary from season to season. In the Southern California summer it takes about 30-45 minutes and can take days in the winter. Our batch took about 45 minutes to an hour for the first rise.

While the dough is rising, sprinkle oat flakes onto a baking tray. After the dough rises once, take the dough out of the bowl place it, knead thoroughly and place on top of the oat flakes on the baking tray and shape accordingly. Cover the dough a second time, place in a warm spot and let it rise. It should take about the same time as the first rising.

Preheat the oven to 450˚. Once the dough has risen a second time, uncover it and place into the oven and splash about 1/2 cup of water on the bottom of the inside of the oven (the space below the baking tray) and close the oven door. This is done to make the bread extra crusty. Bake for 10 minutes then splash another 1/2 cup of water on the bottom of the inside of the oven again, close the door and bake at 425˚ for another 37 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven, brush with olive oil and set on a rack or on it's side to cool.

Bon Appetit!

Note:

The baking time may vary with ovens, so make sure to make adjustments. Also, to expedite the process you might want to cook the wheat berries in a large batch ahead of time and freeze one cup portions into plastic baggies. It's good to have these on hand anyways, they are good additions to oatmeal, cereals, salads and soups. Click here to check out how to cook wheat berries.