Garlic, Feta and Olive Pull Apart Bread

This was an experiment and the results said it all – it had completely disappeared within 5 minutes of coming out of the oven and many ooh’s and aah’s were heard!  This will be the bread I take to social gatherings from now on, it was a huge hit.

300g lukewarm water
2 tsp yeast
600g bakers flour
40g extra virgin olive oil
40g baby spinach
2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp dried parsley
garlic infused extra virgin olive oil (Colbram is the one I use)
150g feta cheese
15-20 kalamata olives, each sliced into 8 pieces

1. Place the water, yeast, olive oil, spinach, salt, garlic granules and parsley in mixer bowl. KNEAD/4 minutes/MC on.

2. Remove from bowl and wrap in a silicon bread mat, or place in a well oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave in a warm place, until doubled in size.

3. When your dough has doubled in size, knock the air out of it and roll into a large, flat rectangle, measuring approximately 48-50cm across and 30cm high. Drizzle with garlic olive oil, then use clean hands to spread the oil to cover the surface of the dough. Crumble over the feta and scatter the olives. Using the palms of your hands, push these ingredients into the dough so that while you are constructing the pull apart, most of these things stay on the dough.

4. Slice dough into 2.5cm wide strips, running the knife from top to bottom. Please be aware that if you are working on a silicon bread mat, you will need to use a plastic knife.

5. Grease the inside base and sides of a 23cm round spring-form tin with a little of the garlic olive oil. You will need someone to help you at this step – ask them to hold the tin at a slight angle, facing you, so that as you place pieces of dough into it, they don’t fall over.

6. Pick up the first strip of dough and work it into a concertina shape, or zigzag, working fairly fast so the topping stays put – in saying this, you will lose some of the topping, which is actually a good thing as you will need these bits later. Place the shaped strip of dough into your tin, flat side down so that the folds aren’t visible. Repeat with all strips of dough, placing them around the bottom section of the tin first, and work your way up. When you have used all of the dough, arrange slightly, if needed, so they are fairly evenly spaced in the tin. Scatter over any of the feta/olives that have fallen off onto your work surface. Leave in a warm place, to double in size.

7. When dough has doubled in size, place into a cold oven and set to 200°C. Cook for 30 minutes. After this time, check your bread, paying particular attention to the very middle section as this is the part that will take the longest to cook. If it is still doughy, put it back into the oven and cook for another 10 minutes – if the outside is brown enough at the 30 minute point, cover it with aluminium foil before putting it back into the oven.

8. When cooked through, remove from oven, unclip and remove outside ring of the tin and serve immediately.