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Artisan: Artichoke, Goat Cheese, Pine Nut Bread

Source of Recipe

Christian


List of Ingredients

3 1/2 cups Bread Flour
1 packet Dry Active Yeast
2.5 tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Chopped Garlic Clove
1.5 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
1 tbsp. Sugar
3/4 cup Artichoke Hearts (use canned, packed in water, not oil)
1 log Goat Cheese (the firmer, the better)
1/2 cup Pine Nuts
1 Egg Beaten (for coating)




Recipe

1. Sift flour into a large bowl. Mix in salt and sugar with hand. Next, mix in oil. Move the ingredients to the sides of the bowl, creating a large "well" (an empty space) in the middle.

2. Pour the yeast into the "well" and pour 1 cup of lukewarm water over the yeast. Sprinkle about 1 tbsp. of flour over top. Wait (about 10 minutes) for bubbles to appear in the yeast.

3. Once the bubbles have appeared, you can start to mix together the ingredients (hands work best) to form the dough. The best way to do this, is to gradually incorporate the flour that is "waiting" on the sides of the bowl. Doing it all at once will be too difficult. So, go bit by bit, if it's too liquid, just add a bit more flour at the end. You should finish this "pre-kneading" stage with a round, firm ball of dough. Again, if it's too sticky, add a little more flour.

4. Kneading: remove the bread from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead it by pushing your palms into and then turning it one quarter. Keep kneading and doing quarter turns for about 5-10 minutes, or until the bread is supple and non-sticky.

5. Place the bread in a lightly floured bowl and cover with a damp dish cloth. Let it rise for about 1 hour (depends on the room temperature, you want it to be fairly warm). It should double in size.

6. Cut artichokes into quarters (or smaller pieces). Stir together artichokes, pepper, nuts, and garlic. Separately, cut goat cheese into thick slices, but don't mix with artichokes.

7. Re-sprinkle a counter top (or other surface) with flour. Prepare a baking pan by lightly oiling and flouring it (or bake on top of parchment paper). With your hands, remove bread and place on floured surface. Punch it down once, hard, with your palms. Now, re-shape it into a ball. Gently work in the artichoke mixture until evenly distributed in dough. Now, very carefully incorporate the goat cheese, trying to keep the goat cheese pieces from breaking. Re-shape dough into a ball and place on baking pan. Cover with dish towel and let rise for about 1 hour. It should double in size.

8. Brush the top of bread with the beaten egg. Put in oven at 375°F and bake for 30 minutes (more or less, depending on how much you like it browned).

Preparation Time: about 25 minutes
Cooking Time: about 30 minutes
Resting Time: about 2 hours



Tip:

If your yeast doesn't bubble, it's no longer active or you didn't use lukewarm water. You should start over in this case, because the bread will not rise.


Variations:

This is what is so much fun with French artisan bread recipes! You can change them around and always wind up with a delicious result! So, for this recipe, you might want to add 1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes to the artichoke mixture, or 1/2 cup diced smoked ham. Or, add 1 tbsp. of paprika at the very beginning of the recipe and your bread will turn a lovely rustic red-orange color.