This delicious bread is infused with the flavors of garlic, rosemary & thyme. Not only is it scrumptious & beautiful to see but oh so much fun to make!
Ingredients:
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves - finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup of warm water
2¼ teaspoon active dried yeast
¼ teaspoon honey
2½ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
18 cherry tomatoes
7 green sprigs of spring onions
Few leaves of fresh coriander
Step 1 - Making the flagrant oil
In a pan add olive oil, garlic, thyme, rosemary, pepper and stir well. Place the pan on very low heat and let it become hot. Keep stirring the mixture occasionally and let the oil heat for about 5 to 7 minutes until you get the amazing aroma coming out of it. Make sure that the garlic does not change its color (that's why we keep it on very low heat). Keep the oil aside to cool down completely.
Step 2 - Making the dough
In a large bowl mix together the warm water, honey and yeast. Let it activate for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl sieve 2½ cups of flour. Now add one cup of the sieved flour into the yeast along with ¼ cup of the garlic olive oil mixture. Combine the same - I have used a stand mixer and let it mix for about 2 minutes. Now add the remaining 1½ cups of flour along with the salt and let the mixer knead the dough for about 7 minutes. Grease a bowl with oil, using a little flour on your hands remove the dough from the stand mixer, shape it into a round, place it in the greased bowl and cover the bowl with cling wrap. Let the dough rise for one hour - it will double in size.
Step 3 - Creating your artwork
After an hour of the dough rising, preheat the oven to 232 degrees C . Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves and remove the liquid and seeds from within - we don't want that to make the bread soggy. Line the bottom of your baking pan (preferably 9 inch by 13 inch size) with parchment (baking) paper and brush about 2 tablespoons of the remaining garlic infused olive oil mixture over the parchment paper and the sides of the baking tray. Transfer the dough to the baking pan, press it down and gently spread it to cover the entire bottom of the pan. Using the tip of your fingers make tiny dents in the dough.
Now comes the fun part - use the spring onions as stems of a plant and place them one at a time on your dough, gently press them down into the dough so they stay there. Place the cherry tomatoes at the end of the spring onions so they resemble tulips (flowers) and lastly place a few coriander leaves between the spring onions so they look like leaves of the plant. Press everything down in the dough gently. Let the dough rise for about 8 minutes and now again using your finger tips make dents on the dough. Now brush the remaining garlic olive oil mixture on the top of the dough including the tomatoes and spring onions. the dents you made will hold a bit of the olive oil as well - this makes the bread more fragrant.
Place the baking tray in the oven and let it bake until golden brown in color for about 15 to 20 minutes. Let it cool down and enjoy this truly amazing bread!
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