Tomato & Mozzarella Crown Loaf

A delicious variation of the COURONNE loaf - super for picnics.

The name COURONNE comes from the French for Crown - shaped in a circle so it could be easily carried on your arm.


Ingredients:

For the bread: 

• 500g Strong White Flour
• 1tsp salt
• 2 tsp dried active yeast
• 175ml warm water
• 200g natural yoghurt

For the filling:

• 100g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 ball (approx 100g) mozzarella drained and diced
• Hand full of fresh basil, torn.

Directions:

Create the dough in the traditional way - add the yeast to the warm water and allow to activate, then mix in the yoghurt.  Add to the flour and salt and mix into a soft dough.  Kneed for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Set aside for ~1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Knock back the dough and kneed for another few minutes.  Roll the dough out into a rectangle (approx 10 x 13in).  Cover the dough with the tomatoes, mozzarella and basil.  Roll it up from the long side until it resembles a Swiss roll.  At this point, you can bring the two ends together to form a circle or for a more interesting bread, cut length ways along the roll and not quite to one end.  You will have two long pieces joined at one end; plait them together.  Twist into a circle shape pressing the ends together to join.

Place the dough on a greased baking tray and place a small bowl over the dough to help it keep the shape. Leave to rise for ~30 minutes.

Bake in a preheated over at 220c for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack.  Best eaten when still slightly warm.  Not my picture, but this is what you should get - looks nice!

Variation: You could also use this to make rolls -divide the dough into twelve balls.