It’s been a while since I made bread, a very long time but today was the day. It’s been a very rainy Bank Holiday Monday, literally all day, like come on, not just a couple of hours THE WHOLE DAY!!! but I shouldn’t really complain as the Saturday and Sunday have been really sunny and I have enjoyed it.
As I’ve had such a busy weekend I thought I would spend the Monday baking something a bit different and savoury, which is unlike me. Bread is the best thing to make when you have a lot of time on your hands. A while ago I bought a book called ‘the book of buns’, it’s an incredible book all relating to bread around the world. It has so many amazing recipes I want to try but it will probably happen on yet another rainy day!
The Tootmanik (I’ve shortened it sorry if I’m not supposed to be, really it a mouthful!) This was the first recipe I tried from the book, this recipe really intrigued and fascinated me. I really liked the abundance of feta cheese being used as I love feta and it was something I definitely wanted to try. Also this isn’t like your usual bread recipe, it’s more like flat bread, stuffed, layered kidnaof thing so completely different to the norm! which made me what to try it, even more, to find out the outcome.
The lathering of the butter on each layer and the top made the bread really soft, but it also is really chewy, and with the addition of the feta cheese and herbs it makes it so tasty. Something I would really enjoy eating on a beautiful day at a picnic.
- 200g - Plain Flour
- 250g - Wholemeal Flour
- 2g - instant yeast
- 250g - milk, boiled then cooled to room temp
- 21/4 - salt
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 100g - butter melted
- 200g - Feta Cheese
- Good amount of pepper
- 2 - cloves of garlic, finely minced
- 1 - egg
- 50g - butter melted and cooled
- Fresh handful of herbs - I used parsley
- 1 tsp - Paprika
- 50g
- 1. In the saucepan add the milk and heat until it's nearly boiled, leave to cool until it's at room temperature. Once it's cooled you can start making the dough.
- 2. In a stand mixer using the dough hook, add the flour, salt, pepper, yeast and melted butter, slowly blend and pour in the warm temperature milk.
- 3. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes, starting with a slow speed then change to the faster speed, making sure the dough all comes together.
- 4. Pull the dough together into a ball and place in a clean bowl, cover for at least 2 hours.
- 5. In a medium bowl add the egg and whisk, then add the crumbled feta, cooled butter, pepper, garlic, paprika and mix until combined, don't overmix.
- 6. Once the dough has had enough time to prove, shape the dough into a sausage and cut into 9 equal parts. On a floured surface, take three of the balls and roll them into 4x4" rectangle. Brush the top of two of them with the melted butter. Then place one on top of each other. Roll them out together until it reaches 12" (approx 30cm). Place this onto a baking try lined with baking paper. Add half the feta cheese mixture and spread it evenly over the layer, repeat with the other layer.
- 10. On the last layer make sure you roll the dough out so it's bigger then the other layer. This needs to be tucked under and rest of the layers. This needs to be secure as you don't want the filling to fall out.
- 11. Cover with a tea towel and let it rest for 1 hour.
- 12. Preheat the oven to 200°C, brush the pastry with butter and sprinkle with paprika bake for 30mins.
