Garlic Bread with Fresh Herbs & Argan Oil

Dough:

• 160 gr / 5.6 oz corn flour
• 250 gr / 8.8 oz bread flour
• 237 gr / 8.4 oz warm water
• 10 gr / 0.4 oz cake yeast (or ⅓ of that in active dry yeast)
• 5.6 gr / 0.2 oz salt
• 4.2 gr / 0.14 oz sugar
• 42 gr / 1.5 oz olive oil

Filling:

• 42 gr / 1.5 oz olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• fresh basil, parsley, rosemary
• pine nuts

Suggested toppings:

• 3 sun dried tomatoes in oil
• 2 TBS of culinary argan oil

Method:

First dissolve the yeast into the warm water. Mix the flour, sugar and salt together. Then add the dry ingredients to the water, followed by the olive oil. Mix the dough on a low speed, for about 10 minutes until well developed. Form the dough into a ball, cover it and let it rest in a warm, draft free place until it has doubled in bulk. Depending on the ambient temperature in your kitchen and the temperature of your dough, this will take 45-70 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the olive oil with the chopped fresh herbs, pine nuts and minced garlic. Season with pepper and salt. Don't be tempted to use argan oil for this; it does not tolerate high temperatures!

Preheat your oven to 200° C / 392° F

When the dough has risen, roll it out into a disk of about 1 cm / ½ inch thick. After a short rest, brush the oil mixture onto the dough and cut it into strips of about 2½ cm / 1 inch wide. Starting with the smallest strips, drape them in circles in a well oiled pan of around 23 cm / 9 inches ⌀. Leave to rest for about 30 minutes until the dough has plumped up nicely.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is a nice golden brown. If you want to add sun dried tomatoes, add them 10 minutes in the last ten minutes of baking. When done, take the pan out of the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes.

Use the culinary argan oil to brush the loaf after it comes out of the oven to give it that special flavor.