Brunch Bread Sunday 12th Feb06

This morning a few of the girls came over for brunch. Melbourne finally turned on the sunshine for our QLD visitors so we set the big umbrella & chairs in the courtyard & settled in. I made the brunch bread form Jamie Oliver’s ‘Happy Days’ book which I have also seen him cook up on tv. Before I saw him make it I had always flicked passed this page with not much interest as I have a ‘too much trouble’ attitude towards making bread most of the time. Jamie cooking it up looked a breeze & absolutely scrumptious so thought this was the perfect opportunity to give it a go. It took a bit longer than Jamie made it look though it wasn’t all that difficult & the end result was amazing, it was a monster as you can see. The recipe says to feed 6, well there were 5 of us & some had seconds & we still only managed to get through about half, guess what Michael & I are having for dinner tonight? All in all, worked pretty well & as suggested would be great to take along to a picnic or similar.

Savoury Rolled Bread of Parma Ham, Egg, Cheese, and Basil

3 x 7g (1/4 oz) sachets dried yeast
1kg (2.2 lb) bread flour, plus extra flour, for dusting
1 pt tepid water
2 tbsp sea salt
3 tbsp sugar
10 slices parma ham
8 large organic egg, boiled for 8 minutes and shelled
400g (14 oz) cheese, (a mix of Cheddar, Parmesan, Fontina, mozzarella, or any leftovers that need to be used up), grated
2 handfuls fresh basil
sun-dried tomato
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
chopped fresh rosemary, leaves

Mix all the ingredients together and knead into a dough.
Roll the dough out into a long rectangular shape about 1/2 inch (1centimeter) thick, about 39 1/2 inches (1 meter) long and 7 to 8 inches (18 to 20 centimeters) wide.
Along the middle of the first piece of rolled out dough, lay out your Parma ham, eggs, cheese, basil, and tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pull the dough over the filling so it forms what looks like a cannelloni shape.
Bring one end round to the other so that they join up. Pinch and pat the two ends together firmly to form a doughnut shaped bread. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and rosemary. Transfer to a baking tray and allow to proove for 15 minutes.

Dust with flour and place in a preheated 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) oven until golden, about 35 minutes.