Sun-dried tomato and feta loaves make for a beautiful and savoury combination to add to your recipe collection. The flavour comes through really pronounced but not in an overpowering way. The texture of the tomatoes complements the super tender crumb of this bread perfectly. I find that these loaves go really well with most of our dinners or even just on its own with a little bit of butter. As with most of my bakes I like to make two of these at a time; that way I am able to eat one fresh and slice the other one up to put in the freezer for later. With the frozen slices I can pull out a slice or two and toast up at a moments notice!
I have made these loaves with all kinds of sun-dried tomatoes but my preference is to go as simple as possible and use the plain dehydrated ones. I find that some of the seasoned tomatoes can be way too heavy on the salt and not only slow down the fermentation but also have too much of a flavour kick for my liking.
Ingredients (Two Loaves)
Process
8:00am- Levain build with 25g starter, 75g water, 75g flour.
11:30am- Autolyse with 600g of the water
12:15pm- Mix in 160g levain.
12:45pm- Mix in salt with the remaining 40g of water.
1:15pm- Coil fold.
1:45pm- Laminate sun-dried tomatoes and feta into the dough.
2:15pm- Coil fold
3:00pm- Coil fold
3:45pm- Coil fold
5:30pm- Divide and pre-shape
5:45pm- Shape and put into banneton, cover with plastic and put into the fridge
7:30am- Preheat oven, Challenger Bread Pan and Lodge dutch oven to 500°F
8:00am- Bake at 450°F for 22 minutes with the lid on, then 20 minutes with the lid off.
Notes:
To rehydrate the sun-dried tomatoes I simply put them into a bowl, pour boiling water over them and let sit for 30 minutes. Afterwards I drain and let sit for another 30 minutes until they cool down to room temperature before adding them to the dough.
Even at 80% hydration I feel like this one can get pushed quite a bit higher. I really had to work the dough to get nice big coil folds the way I like to do them. 80% is a good starting point and it really depends on your flours and how thirsty you tomatoes are!
I keep my dough in my Brod & Taylor Proofer at 76-78°F to help with consistency and fermentation (warm and stable temperatures will help achieve great results).
When you laminate, try and spread out as thin as possible without tearing the dough. This helps develop the gluten and also gives a better, more consistent spread of filling throughout the dough. See video below for a lamination demonstration.
Your fermentation times may vary depending on a lot of different factors. Use these times for the folding and the duration of the Bulk Fermentation only as a guideline. What worked for me may need to be tweaked a little bit for your bake.
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