By The Greek Vegetarian :: Spartan Electrical and ASKO
As seen on Season 5 of Adelady TV, Channel Nine
Makes approximately 30 breadsticks.
Delicious from the get-go, this soft and fluffy bread is taken to a whole new level when baked in an ASKO Steam Oven, available at Spartan Electrical! Keeping everything moist with it’s steam function, this oven is also a time saver — cutting out the waiting around while it preheats! This recipe calls for 2 hours of proofing time for the bread to rise, however the steam oven cuts that to almost half.
Our friends at Spartan Electrical have all the appliances that you need to cook up a storm — head to their website to find everything you need!
Ingredients
900g strong flour or plain flour
18g salt
600ml water
21g dry yeast
30mls extra virgin olive oil
300g pitted olives
300g sundried tomatoes
300g Greek feta
2 tablespoons of Mediterranean Spice Mix
Additional extra virgin olive oil
Method
In a bowl, add the water and yeast together and allow to soften for a few minutes.
In a seperate bowl, add the flour and the salt and mix well.
Add the water and yeast mixture into the flour, along with the olive oil. Mix all ingredients together until they are well incorporated.
Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for approximately 10 minutes until the dough is soft.
Once kneaded, cut the dough evenly into 3 portions then spread out the dough slightly and add a hero ingredient to each portion (for example, place your olives onto one portion, feta onto the next portion, and sundried tomatoes on the final portion).
Mix each portion of dough until it comes together and lightly knead the dough for a further minute.
Shape each portion of dough into a ball and add into seperate lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film and a tea towel. Allow to prove at room temperature for 2 hours until the dough has almost doubled.
Note: if you’re using an ASKO Steam Oven, leave uncovered and then place in the oven to proof on the automatic proof function, and then wait for the dough to double in size.
Once proofed, lightly flour your work surface again and flatten the dough slightly. Measure out 80 gram balls of dough to ensure an even bake and size. Repeat for all three mixtures.
Roll each of the balls into 30cm (approx) long sticks (or as long as your trays are). You can make them bigger or smaller and also experiment with the shapes.
Pre-heat your oven to 230 degrees fanforced and allow your sticks to rise at room temperature whilst you wait for your oven to come to heat (unless using an ASKO Steam Oven, in which case allow it to do all the work for you and skip the extra proofing time!)
Pour one cup of water into the base of your oven (in a roasting tray) and bake your sticks for 15 minutes or until golden.
Remove from the oven and using a pastry brush, brush generously with olive oil.
