Fresh Thyme Bread With Olive Oil Recipes

FRESH THYME BREAD WITH OLIVE OIL

Steps:

• Combine very warm water and yeast in a large bowl. Stir with a fork until yeast dissolves. Let stand 3 minutes, then add the poolish, cool water, olive oil, and thyme. Combine with your fingers for about 2 minutes, breaking up sponge until yeast mixture looks milky and slightly foamy.
• Add flours and salt. Mix with your fingers to incorporate, scraping the bowl's sides and folding dough over itself until it gathers into a mass. When sticky strands of dough cling to your fingers, gather it into a ball and move it to a lightly floured surface. If dough is very firm, add 1 tablespoon water.
• Knead dough for about 5 minutes, until it becomes smoother and supple. Put the dough back into the mixing bowl, cover it with oiled plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes to smooth out and develop elasticity.
• Return the dough to the lightly floured survace and knead for 2 to 3 minutes, until smooth and stretchy. Do not knead extra flour into the dough. It should be soft and loose.
• Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the dough with oiled plastic wrap and allow it to rise at room temperature (75 to 78°F) for 1 hour. After one hour, turn the dough while it is still in the mixing bowl. Gently deflate the dough in the middle of the bowl with your fingertips, then fold the left side over the middle, and the right side over the middle. Fold the dough in half, gently pat it down, and then turn it over so the seam is underneath. Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap or a large plastic bag, and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 8 hours or overnight.
• Remove from refrigerator and let warm until it begins to rise again, 1 ½ to 2 hours.
• Cover a peel or the back of a sheet pan with parchment paper, then sprinkle with cornmeal. Place dough, which may be quite sticky, on a well-floured surface and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Shape each into a boule, or round loaf. Flour the seam of each and place loaves, seam side down, on peel or pan, leaving 3 to 4 inches between them for rising and spreading. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 1 ¼ to 1 ¾ hours, or until loaves have doubled in bulk.
• Thirty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450°F. Fill a plastic spray bottle with water and place a small pan (such as a mini loaf pan) on the lowest possible rack of the electric oven. Also place a cast-iron pan (that you are willing to get rusty) next to the small pan (I just used another small pan), fill a teakettle with water to be boiled later, and have a metal 1-cup measure with a straight handle available near the kettle.
• Five to 10 minutes before the loaves are ready to bake, carefully place 2 or 3 ice cubes in the small pan in the bottom of the oven. This helps to create moisture in the oven prior to baking. If using a water pan, also turn the water on to boil.
• Mist the tops of the loaves with water, then using a razor blade, cut a shallow tick-tack-toe pattern on top of each loaf, being careful not to tear dough. Gently slide loaves from the parchment onto the baking stone (if you're baking with a stone simply slide the sheet pan onto the empty oven rack). Pour 1 cup of boiling water into the cast-iron pan and immediately shut oven door. After about 1 minute, quickly mist loaves with water 6 to 8 times, then shut the oven door.
• Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 400°F and bake 10 to 15 minutes longer, until loaves are light golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Brush loaves with olive oil using a pastry brush. Cool on a rack.

OLIVE AND THYME BREAD

Steps:

• ADDITIONAL INGREDIENT: 1 1/4 cups basic bread sponge (from my basic bread sponge recipe).
• Can use any fleshy black olive in place of Kalamatas.
• In a bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water. Allow to proof for three minutes.
• Stir the sponge into the water, breaking the sponge up using your hands or a spoon.
• Add 3 1/4 cups of the flour and salt and mix, scraping and folding until the dough gathers into a single mass. Mix in the olives and thyme until distributed. This dough will be wet and sticky.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead as much of the 1/3 cup of flour as is required to make a smooth and elastic dough.
• Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• Halve the dough and shape each piece into a ball and place in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic. Allow to rise in a draft-free location for two hours.
• Turn out each piece of the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and press out any large bubbles. Shape each half into a loose oval. Transfer each of the ovals into a 9x5 loaf pan, with the seam on the bottom. Cover again with plastic and allow to double in bulk, which should take 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
• Preheat the oven for at least thirty minutes along with a baking stone or tiles on the middle rack to 425. Place a baking pan with decent sides on the bottom shelf. Boil two cups of water. Place the loaf pans on the stones and then immediately pour the boiling water into the baking pan.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes until the loaves are hollow sounding when removed from the pans and tapped on the bottom. Take the loaves out of the pans and cool on a rack.

GARLIC-THYME BREAD

Steps:

• In a medium mixing bowl, combine yeast and water, and allow to stand in a warm place for 10 minutes or until foamy.
• Stir in oil, salt, garlic, thyme, and whole wheat flour.
• Add white flour 1/4 cup at a time, as needed, until a stiff manageable dough is formed.
• Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 to 10 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic.
• Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and set aside in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled.
• (For even more garlicky flavour, after the dough has risen once, punch it down and place in refrigerator for 1 to 3 days. Let it come to room temperature, and then proceed with the following directions.) Preheat oven to 450° and dust a baking sheet with cornmeal.
• If desired, work a bit of parmesan-reggiano into the dough at this point with some olive oil for extra flavour.
• Form the dough into a round, place on prepared cooking sheet, cover with plastic, and let rise for 30 minutes.
• Brush lightly with cold water, bake for 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 400° and continue baking for 20-30 minutes, or until loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.