Rosemary and Potato Bread

For the last two weeks, I was not in my usual baking self as I was busy training for Melbourne Marathon on 14 Oct 2012. This is my very first marathon and I have completed it in 3 hrs 54 min 56 sec! I was totally amazed with this result and thought that I was running very slowly with all these pains throughout the journey. As I was approaching the finishing line, I was feeling quite emotional recalling two years back when I couldn't even run 3 km after my Cesarean complication. I must say that my past two years has been an amazing journey of my life. I'm so glad that I have been running and baking a lot and loves every aspect of my new found hobbies...

Amongst the things that I love, these are the beautiful ingredients that I love and used to make this loaf of bread. The desiree potatoes, fleur de sel, rosemary and olive herb are all so wonderful especially they were baked together in this combination...

Desiree potatoes are pink-coloured potatoes. Their skin is very thin and doesn't need any peeling. I like eating desiree potatoes when they roasted with their skin on.

Fleur de sel, also known as flower of salt in French contains more mineral complexity than table salt. I like to use Fleur de sel for this bake; although soft, this salt topping stays on my bread very well, look like little "snow flakes" on my bread. Due to its soft and moist texture, the fleur de sel on this loaf doesn't has the typical coarse sea salt crunch at all and its saltiness would simply melt into my mouth.

I'm always very proud of my homegrown herbs and think our rosemary and olive herb plants are always fabulous... Olive herb is an interesting herb to use for cooking and baking. It is a hardy perennial with bright green leaves that have an intense olive flavours.

... these are simply the reasons that I love baking this bread. With or without breadmaker, the bread seems not difficult at all to bake and yet so soft and flavoursome to eat.

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After running and baking so much lately, I'm actually feeling quite tired and all I want now is a holiday... My family and I will be having a short break in Singapore and Shanghai for the next coming 3 weeks and hope that our "guardian" mother hen can watched our plants well when we are gone. I hope to return soon with lots of running, cooking and baking. See ya.

Rosemary and Potato Bread

The beautiful ingredients that I used to make this bread

My son reckons that this "mother hen" is me... LOL!

Making the bread

This is so soft and flavoursome to eat...

What more can I say?

Here's the recipe from Taste.com.au 
(with my modification in blue)

600g (4 cups) plain flour, sifted
(I used a combination of 500g bread flour and 100g Italian OO flour) 
1 tbsp (14g/2 sachets) dried yeast
2 tsp salt
2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
310ml (1 1/4 cups) warm water
5 tbsp olive oil 
(I used 3 tbsp for the bread dough and 2 tbsp for coating the potatoes)
Olive oil, to grease
2 medium desiree or pontiac potatoes, unpeeled
10 x 3cm-long fresh rosemary sprigs
(I used a mixture of fresh rosemary and fresh olive herbs)
2 tsp sea salt flakes 
(I used fleur de sel)

Place the flour, yeast, salt and rosemary in a large bowl and mix well. Make a well in the centre of the mixture. Combine the water and 3 tbsp of the oil and add to the dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to stir until combined, then use your hands to bring the dough together.

Turn the dough onto a lightly oiled surface and knead in 1 tbsp of remaining oil. Knead for 10 min or until smooth and elastic. Brush a large bowl with oil to grease. Place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a clean tea towel and place in a warm, draught-free place to prove for 45 min or until the dough doubles in size. (Instead of kneading by hand, I've placed all my ingredients into my bread-maker and use "dough" setting to knead and prove the dough for 1 hr). 

Preheat oven to 220°C (or 200°C fan forced). Without knocking back (deflating) the dough, place in a 15 x 27cm (base measurement) non-stick loaf pan (mine is 15 x 26 cm).

Cut the potatoes, crossways, into thin slices and place in a large bowl. Drizzle with the remaining oil and toss to coat. Use a small, sharp knife to cut 20 evenly spaced slits, about 2cm deep and 2cm long, in the top of the dough. Insert 1 slice of potato in each and insert a rosemary sprig in the dough between the potato slices. Cover with a tea towel and place in a warm, draught-free place to prove for 1 hr or until the dough doubles in size again. 

Sprinkle the top of the dough with sea salt and bake in a preheated oven for 40 mins or until light brown and hollow-sounding when tapped on the base. Remove from oven, turn onto a wire rack and set aside for 10 min to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Note: Mine was baked for 20 min at 200°C fan forced and another 20 min at 180°C fan forced.

Happy Baking

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