Once you try this Sun Dried Tomato Bread, you’ll be looking for excuses to make it again and again. Most of the time nowadays I make sourdough, but it does take a bit of effort and planning, where as this bread recipe is really quick by comparison and the sweet fruity, slightly sour and umami flavors of the sun dried tomatoes more than make up for the sourness of sourdough. Not only is this sun dried tomato bread recipe very, very tasty, but it is really versatile and as well as good for sandwiches, it is great with soup, toasted cheese, crostini, as a base for a ‘personal pizza’, etc.
Sun Dried Tomato Bread
“Why not just use normal tomatoes”, I can hear my friend Bill say. After he made a post on all the types of tomatoes he uses in the kitchen, the major omission was the sun dried tomato. He said that he didn’t see the point of them. To me though, sun dried tomatoes have a more intense flavour than fresh or even tinned tomatoes and the umami flavor is really pronounced, hence why this bread is so ‘more-ish’
Sun Dried Tomatoes
I usually make bread by hand because I love kneading, but you could easily use a food mixer for kneading or adapt this recipe for a breadmaker. I braided this bread, but you could easily turn this into any shape you like or make a pull-apart bread for dipping.
Note: Sometimes I use sun dried tomatoes in oil, and omit the olive oil in the recipe, other times I use ones from a packet, but I use the oil from a left over jar of sun dried tomatoes that I keep in the fridge for adding flavor to dishes.
Sun-Dried Tomato Bread Recipe
Total time: 4 hour 20 min
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients
- 500g (17.5oz) strong white bread flour
- 300g (10.5 oz) luke warm water
- 75g (2.5 oz) chopped Sun-Dried Tomatoes
- 5g (1 tsp) salt
- 7g (2 tsp) active dry yeast
- 15g (1 tbsp) olive oil
- Optional additions – mozzarella, goat’s cheese, blue cheese, basil, chopped olives, rosemary, cooked onion, garlic, fennel, sun dried tomato pesto
Method
- Mix together the flour, water and yeast into a soggy loose mass. Cover and leave for 30 mins to allow the yeast to get going and the dough to autolyse.
- Add the salt, half the sun dried tomatoes and the olive oil (see note above). Mix quickly together and then turn out onto a clean work surface and knead for about 5 minutes. Return to the bowl, cover and leave for 1 hour to rise.
Dough resting
- Punch down the dough, cover and leave for another hour to rise.
- Dust your work surface with semolina flour and roll out the dough into square, cover with the rest of the sun dried tomatoes and any other flavors you wish. Roll the dough into a log and cut into two pieces.
Braided sun dried tomato dough
- Roll these two pieces into longer logs and then braid them together and put it into a baking pan.
Braided Loaf in baking tin
- Cover the bread and leave for about an hour to rise again.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200C (400F). Place a small dish of water in the bottom of the oven to produce steam. Cook the bread for about 30mins.
- Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool before trying to slice it. With most bread, it is easier to cut if left for a day, but the smell from this bread will make you want to eat it as soon as possible.
- Enjoy
