Crusty Rustic Loaf

This bread has a crunchy and slightly chewy crust and a soft, holey interior.  It's particularly good with pate, a ploughman's or a mediterranean-style lunch or starter as it's got a savoury, yeasty flavour made more punchy with olive oil.  I've used extra virgin olive oil but it can certainly be made with a lighter oil if you want a milder flavour.

This loaf does require more yeast than I normally use, which is needed to produce the big air bubbles in this country style loaf.  I normally have the sachets of fast action yeast in my cupboard for making everyday bread and pizza dough but have recently progressed to a little tin of active dried yeast for making breads like this one. 

Ingredients

500g Strong White Flour (plus a small amount for dusting)

2 teaspoons Salt

300ml Warm Water

30ml (2 tbsp) Olive Oil

20g (approx. 2 level tbsp)  Dried Yeast (or 2 sachets of Fast Action Yeast)

• Put the flour and salt into a large bowl and mix together.
• Measure the water in a measuring jug then add the oil and the yeast to this and stir, this then needs to be left for 10 minutes to activate the yeast (if using sachets of fast acting yeast it can be used instantly). 
• Stirring with a fork, add all the water and oil mixture to the flour and stir until a ball of dough is forming.
• Using your hand, start to knead the dough in the bowl to collect up all the flour and transfer to a lightly floured surface.  Knead for about 5-10 minutes until the dough feels bouncy.
• Put the dough back into the bowl which you have lightly dusted with flour and leave for 2 hours to rise.  It doesn't really need to be somewhere warm but if it's very cold it may need longer.  It also doesn't really need to be covered.
• After the dough has doubled in size take it out of the bowl, back on the surface and knead for a few minutes.  Shape into a fat sausage shape and put on to an oil baking tray/sheet and leave to rise again for about an hour.
• Pre-heat the oven to 210C (fan).
• When the dough has risen again, make horizontal slashes across the top of the loaf, brush or spray lightly with water and bake in the oven for 30 minutes until dark golden and hollow-sounding when tapped underneath.