Bread shots

My friend was hosting a cocktails and canapés evening; I needed bread that would fit the bill. Needless to say, Richard Bertinet’s Dough provided me with a recipe. Even if using that book again does make me seem like a bit of a broken record. So, this time it was bread shots.

One olive decided it wanted to be an outy

It all started easily enough with a basic white bread; 500g strong white bread flour, 10g fresh yeast (rubbed into the flour), 10g salt and 350ml water, combined and kneaded until smooth and elastic. It then needed to double in size... the house was cold so, snuggling up to my wheat bag, it took about an hour and a half.

So, what to do with this bread now to turn it into canapés rather than another white loaf? Well, it got turned out onto a worktop and divided into 5. Each piece of dough then also got divided into 6. Do the maths... yep, that’s right, 30 pieces of dough were the result. Each bit got rolled into a ball and placed on a greased baking tray (a few looked a little ragged round the edges because they didn’t want to unstick from my fingers!) and were left to rest for 15 minutes. I then covered my finger in flour and gave each ball a good poke in the middle and filled each subsequent hole with a black olive (other filling suggestions from the book included pesto, good quality tomato puree flavoured with herbs or walnuts). I covered both trays and put them in a warm place to double in size again.

When the dough balls was looking nicely plump and almost ready, the oven got preheated to as hot as it would go, with a baking tray placed at the bottom. When the dough balls were all good to go, they went in the oven and some ice cubes got thrown on the preheated baking tray. The oven was quickly whipped down to 220°C (425°F or gas mark 7). I’d burned some cupcakes at college earlier in the week so, feeling a little paranoid, I put on a timer to tell me to check the bread after 8 minutes. They weren’t quite ready because they were colouring pretty well on one half of the tray and not on the other, so I span them round and gave them a little longer. Once golden all over, they went onto a cooling wrack. The book says to serve them warm, brushed with olive oil... but this didn’t seem quite practical as I had to get them to my friend’s house. So they just got cooled before being thrown unceremoniously into a sandwich bag.

They didn’t go down too badly at my friend’s party but I did bring quite a few home. I didn’t see this as much of an issue; all the more for me : )

Simplified recipe

Ingredients

500g strong white bread flour

10g fresh yeast

10g salt

350ml water

Whole pitted olives (or some other flavouring, such as pesto, good quality tomato puree flavoured with herbs or walnuts)

Method

1.       Put the flour in a bowl and rub in the yeast

2.       Add the salt, then make a well in the dry ingredients and add the water

3.       Bring everything together into a dough, turn out onto a worktop and knead or work until it becomes smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes)

4.       Place the dough in a bowl and leave in a warm place to double in size (which should take around 1 hour)

5.       Turn the dough out onto a worktop, divide into 5 and then divide each piece into six. Form each piece of dough into a tight ball, place on an oiled baking tray and rest for 15 minutes

6.       Flour the end of your finger, or the handle of a wooden spoon, and poke a hole in the middle of each ball. Fill the hole with an olive (or your other chosen flavouring) then cover and leave to rest until doubled in size again

7.       Preheat your oven to as hot as it will go and place a baking tray at the bottom

8.       Put the dough in the oven and throw some ice cubes onto the preheated baking tray. Turn the oven down to 220°C (425°F or gas mark 7) and bake the bread shots for 8-10 minutes until an even golden colour

9.       Brush with olive oil and serve warm

References

Dough, Richard Bertinet, Kyle Books, 2005