Fir-bread with garlic

Hey foodies,

The holiday season is fast approaching and I personally often struggle to find ideas for the aperitif.

That's why this week, I'm sharing a recipe that will be perfect for holiday aperitifs. ;-)

A fir-bread with garlic, with a pretty garland of tomatoes, cured ham and spring onion shoots.

This recipe can be made in a vegan version.

For this recipe, you will need:

Bread dough

- 430gr of semi-white flour

- 26gr of fresh yeast or 6gr of dry yeast

- 130gr of water

- 130gr of whole milk (plant-based milk)

- 1 tbsp of salt

Garlic butter

- 100gr of butter (plant-based butter)

- 30gr of garlic cloves

- 1 small shallot

- 1/2 tsp of salt

- 5 turns of the pepper mill

Decoration

- 15gr of whole milk (plant-based milk)

- Cured ham (green and black olives for the vegan version)

- 4 small cherry tomatoes

- A few spring onion shoots

Bread dough

To start, we will make the bread dough, as it will need to rise for about 1h30.

In a jug, pour 130gr of water and 130gr of whole milk (plant-based milk).

Heat the water and milk in the microwave for 30 seconds at 600Watt.

It is important that the mixture does not exceed 37°C. If it is too hot, it will kill the yeast and the bread will not rise.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, pour 430gr of semi-white flour.

Then crumble 26gr of fresh yeast over the flour.

If you are using dry yeast: add it to the milk/water mixture we heated earlier, so that it mixes well with the other ingredients afterwards.

Pour the milk/water mixture over the flour then, using the dough hook, start kneading the dough at speed 1 for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, the dough will start to form a ball.

Add 1 tbsp of salt. It is very important to add the salt at this point and not before, because if the salt comes into direct contact with the yeast, it will lose all its effect and the bread will not rise.

Continue kneading for 5 minutes at speed 1 then 10 minutes at speed 2 to give the dough elasticity.

Once our dough is ready, shape it into a nice ball and place it in the bowl.

Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let the dough rise for 1h30 at room temperature. The dough will double in volume.

In the meantime, we will prepare the garlic butter that will be used to fill the rolls later.

Garlic butter

Start by taking 100gr of butter (plant-based butter) out of the fridge 30 minutes before starting this step so it is easier to work with.

Prepare 30gr of garlic, peel the cloves and remove the germ from the centre.

Using a garlic press, press the garlic cloves into a bowl.

Prepare 1 small shallot, peel it and cut it into small cubes.

In a bowl, add the 100gr of butter (plant-based butter), the 30gr of pressed garlic and the diced shallot.

Use measuring spoons to add the salt — you will need 1/2 tsp.

Finally, add 5 turns of the pepper mill.

Using the whisk attachment, whip everything at max speed for about 5 minutes.

The "Christmas tree" cake mould will give our bread a lovely shape after baking.

Spray the mould with non-stick spray so the bread doesn't stick after baking and can be easily unmoulded.

There we go! Our garlic butter is ready and the dough has doubled in volume.

Start by punching the dough down with 3-4 punches.

Turn it out onto the work surface and, using a plastic dough scraper, divide the dough into small portions of 25gr.

If the dough is sticky, lightly flour the work surface.

Be careful not to flour it too much, otherwise the dough will slide and you won't be able to roll your dough balls properly.

You will need 26 portions of dough in total to fill the mould.

Once all the dough is divided, I recommend covering the small portions with a damp cloth to prevent the dough from drying out.

Using a small rolling pin, flatten each portion of dough so you can place 1/2 tsp of garlic butter on it.

Enclose the garlic butter inside the dough by folding the dough over and pinching it closed.

Shape it into a nice ball using your hands.

Arrange the dough balls in the "Christmas tree" cake mould.

Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan-assisted.

After 30 minutes, brush the Christmas tree with 15gr of whole milk (plant-based milk) using a pastry brush.

Bake for 25 minutes in the centre of the oven preheated to 180°C.

There we go! After 25 minutes, the Christmas tree bread is baked. :o)

Unmould the bread and let it cool at room temperature on a cooling rack.

Once the bread is completely cool, decorate it. I used cured ham, cherry tomatoes and spring onion shoots.

For the vegan version, replace the cured ham with green and black olives. :-)

This way your guests can grab a piece of garlic bread along with a little decoration. ;-)

And there you have it — our fir-bread with garlic is ready to be enjoyed.

I hope you love this recipe and feel inspired to try it out over the holiday season. ;-)

It will keep for 2 days in a sealed container in the fridge.

Wishing you all wonderful holidays, foodies.

Sophie

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.