Herby Edam and Chilli Sharing Loaf

This impressive loaf is too good to not share and is a great snacking loaf for picnics and lunches. It is ridiculously moreish and surprisingly easy to make.

The olive oil in this bread gives is a wonderful texture, as well as helping to make the dough pliable for shaping and carrying the flavour of the herbs. As with most of my bread recipes, I use fresh yeast because I prefer the flavour, but 7g of dried yeast can be substituted if need be.

THINGS YOU WILL NEED

Large Mixing Bowl

Wooden Spoon

Frying Pan

Spatula

Greaseproof Paper/ Reusable Baking Sheet

INGREDIENTS

250g Water

10g Fresh Yeast

500g Bread Flour

25g Brown Sugar

10g Salt

60g Olive Oil

A good handful of fresh, woody stemmed herbs (I used rosemary and thyme)

120g Edam

1 tbsp Dried Chilli Flakes

1 Egg

1) In a large mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, salt and flour. In a separate bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water.

2) Remove the herb leaves from their woody stems and finely chop the leaves. There should be roughly 2 tbsp of chopped herbs. In a saucepan, gently warm the herbs with the olive oil for around 10 minutes or until it smells fragrant and soft rolling bubbles appear. The herbs should still be bright green and smelling fresh. Turn off the heat and allow the oil to cool for 20-30 minutes until no more than luke warm.

3) Add the water to the bowl of flour and stir into a loose crumb. Add the cooled herb oil and continue mixing until it forms a loose ball in the bowl. Now tip the dough onto a clean worktop and knead it for at least 5 minutes until it become smooth and velvety. Try to avoid adding additional flour; if you find it a bit tacky, keep the dough moving and use the heel of your hand to avoid getting it stuck to your fingers. If that does not work for you, use a small amount of oil to coat your hands and the worktop. When kneaded, bring the dough together into a ball and leave in the mixing bowl to rise for at least three hours or until doubled in size.

Leave to rise after kneading

Doubled in size

4) Tip the dough back onto the surface and gently knead it to knock out the air. Roll the dough into a rough rectangle shape, about 40x20cm. Grate the cheese and sprinkle both it and the dried chilli flakes across the surface of the dough. From the long edge, roll the dough into a long log. Be careful not to roll too tightly or the bread will struggle to expand in the second prove.

Transfer the log onto a tin lined with non-stick paper. Shape it into a big doughnut and press the ends together. With a sharp knife, cut the dough three quarters of the way through the log in fairly regularly sized wedges all around the ring. Finally, twist each wedge 90 degrees clockwise so that the wedge is laying flat with the pinwheel shape inside facing upwards. Leave to prove for another 3 hours or so until the dough has doubled in size.

5) Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly beat the egg in a small bowl and us it to eggwash the dough. Bake the bread for 40 - 50 minutes, turning half way through if needed. To check that the dough is cooked through, gently press the bottom of the loaf with your thumb. It is ready if the dough bounces back. Leave the bread in the oven a bit longer if if it does not feel light and spongey or if the thumb indent remains. Leave to cool slightly before serving, as this will make it easier to slice.