Bread Videos

Greek Feta Pull Apart Bread – Step By Step

This pullapart bread is so easy to make! Once in a while you get a little creative in the kitchen. Either because you’re short on time and just make things up as you go or because you don’t have the right ingredients so you just toss things in and hope things work out. But once in a while someone sends you a recipe tip that stirs up the imagination and you just go for it.

This last scenario is what happened to me the other day when my wife sent me a link to this YouTube video showing Aki making a nice looking Greek appetizer. The bread is basically a pull-apart loaf that has olive oil and is stuffed with spices and Feta cheese.

The following items will help you to make this bread. If you end up purchasing any of these items, the site will get a small portion and encourage us to keep going!

Knowing that we were having a dinner party at our house the next evening, I thought I’d give this bread a try and see if I could make it as good as that video made it seem. I did some research and it seems to be a fairly unique bread too. And to top it off this bread seemed pretty easy to make so after we fed the kids I got to work in the kitchen to mix the dough.

Soft, Chewy, And Delicious

This bread turned out way better than I expected. First off, the smell throughout the house was amazing thanks to all the good ingredients that went in to it. I was also pleasantly surprised that the mustard sauce topping wasn’t at all overpowering like I thought it would be. Guests kept commenting on how good this bread turned out, so I guess it’s a winner and a repeat contender for sure!

The overview of this Greek feta bread goes something like this. For the dough, all you need are these ingredients: Flour, water, salt, yeast, sugar, eggs, and olive oil. You mix it all up and let it rise, then you roll it and fill it. For the filling, you mix mustard and olive oil and spread it around the dough, then top with rosemary and oregano. I didn’t have any fresh so I used some dried herbs we had in a jar. Then you crumble and sprinkle the Feta cheese. From there you cut it in to rows, lay them on top of one another, then you cut the rows in to pieces, then lay them one on top of the other in an oiled bread pan. After an hour of rising you bake it and voila!

Here are the steps in a little more detail.

Allow the bread to rest for about half an hour after baking or it could fall apart unexpectedly!

Have some olives and olive oil available for dipping and this will be the hit of your dinner party!

23.10.18 By nick Leave a Comment

Bread with Yeasted Water

There are many ways to make bread. From slow sourdough breads that can take a few days from the time you mix to the time you bake to biscuits that can be mixed and cooked within a few moments, the variety of leavening agents available for the home baker are quite diverse.

By far the most popular method that folks use to bake bread at home is with store bought yeast. Just cut open the little bag and add to your mixing bowl and the dough will “double in size” in fairly short order. From there the baker shapes the dough, lets it rest for a little longer, and off it goes in to the oven for a tasty bread in half an hour.

One of the lesser known ways of making bread is by using yeasted water. Yeasted water is the result of adding something that has a little bit of fruit to a jar, and topping it off with water before sealing the jar and waiting for a few days. I first read about this baking method from this post a few years ago. Being the curious cat that I am, I researched a bit and found very little online at the time but decided to take the post’s words as truth and baked one of my first breads with “leavened water” that I made from plums. You can read the post and get a glimpse of the process but I’ll detail it here again for you. One thing that I think I omitted to say on the original post is that you should make your jar as full of water as possible in order to leave as much air as possible out of the jar. The air could cause your infusion to grow mold. This happened to me once and am sure is fairly common given that you want to generally keep these infusions in a warm area for a while.

So since fall is here it means that our local fruit farm had an abundance of prune plums, which are by far my favorite type of plum, so we bought an unnecessarily large amount. We sure had our fill for the season! I also made some plum jam and decided to make this infused yeasted water bread again with the last few plums of the year. You certainly don’t need to use plums for this, so look around your kitchen and get creative! You can use just about any fruit you want to use. Apples and raisins are other good fruits to use but use your imagination and give it a go.

The first step is to wash you jar and your plum really well. From there all you have to do is put the plums in the jar and fill the jar to the top with water before tightening the lid. Now place your creation somewhere it can be left alone for a few days, but nowhere you could forget about because if you do, the gas that gets built up in the jar could cause the jar to explode and thus remind you of where you had left it!

Check in on your infusion once a day so you can observe how things change but the you’ll know the mixture is ready when there are bubbles at the top of the jar.

If you are not ready to bake when the infusion is ready, you can put it in the fridge for a few days but note that this will increase the amount of time it takes for the bread to proof and may require a little bit of “spiking” with regular yeast. I put my infusion in the fridge for a couple of days this time and didn’t notice much of a slowdown but your mileage may vary.

When you do decide to bake, substitute the water in your formula for your infused yeast water and don’t add any yeast. Mix it all together and watch the magic happen. If after a few hours you don’t see any growth in your dough or it’s really slow, don’t hesitate to add a little bit of yeast to your dough and knead it again for a bit to incorporate everything. There’s no shame in that, you’ll still get the subtle aroma of the fruit and your results will be great!

Yeasted Plum Water Bread Recipe

500 grams King Arthur All-Purpose flour
335 ml yeasted plum water
22 grams salt
22 grams sugar

In a medium bowl add your flour, salt, and sugar then add the water. Mix to combine and cover. Using more or less a sourdough method, check in on the dough after half and hour and do a stretch and fold. Do a stretch and fold every half hour or so if your dough is slow to rise. If it’s rising quickly just one of two folds until it can pass the windowpane test easily will suffice.

Once it’s grown and nearly doubled, turn on to a floured surface and pre-shape your loaf to your desired final shape. Put in to a proofing basket and proof for an hour or so at room temperature or in the fridge overnight.

Pre-heat your oven to 500˚F and once ready, score your loaf and load it in the oven before turning the oven down to 450˚F. If you’re using a cloche like I did, bake it with the lid on for 15 minutes and finish baking without the lid, another 15 minutes or so.

Remove the loaf from the oven and let cool before enjoying.

Check out the full video of the process below. If you have any questions leave a comment on YouTube and make sure to subscribe to the channel!

All of the gear that I used to make the bread is listed below:

13.01.17 By nick Leave a Comment

How to Make a Sourdough Starter From Scratch: Day 2

In the previous video, I showed you how to “start” your sourdough culture. In today’s video, I’ll show you how to clean and feed your culture. By this time tomorrow, your culture should start showing more signs of life by having bubbles and becoming more airy!

Presently your culture shouldn’t look too different than it did yesterday. It may have a hint of a sour odor, it may have released a little bit of water, and it may also look exactly the same. There are variables to its behavior, namely flour type, contents in your water, and temperature at which it was kept.

12.01.17 By nick Leave a Comment

How to Make a Sourdough Starter From Scratch: Day 1

To a home baker, there’s no better feeling than pulling a beautiful artisan crusty bread out of the oven that was made with a homemade sourdough starter. The sense of accomplishment and pride is just amazing, and I love sharing those loaves with family and friends.

While everyone is awed by the loaf and your skills, you know that it really wasn’t all that hard. And maybe that’s the best part!

That’s why I want to show you how to create a sourdough culture from scratch, how to grow it and feed it, so you can have your very own homemade sourdough starter. It only takes a few days to get it going and the results will last you a lifetime. You can even share it, give it to your friends, and teach them a new hobby!

2.12.16 By nick Leave a Comment

No Knead Bread

Check out this short video for a brief overview on making no-knead bread.

As you can see, it’s really easy! Mix the ingredients and let them hang out overnight. Whenever you’re ready, pre-heat the dutch oven or cloche, load the bread, and bake away.

No-Knead Artisan Bread at Home

No-knead bread is a good way to make bread. It gives you a nice crust, decent flavor, and a good looking end product! This will get you on your way to artisan breads at home with minimal fuss.