Sun-dried Tomato Bread

Tired of usual bread buy from supermarket, so make something special for breakfast!

Serving size: 8 pieces (each round bread is about 3 cm height x 9 cm diameter)

Preparation time: 45 minutes (exclude 2 rounds of waiting time)
Cooking time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:      
225g       strong white bread flour
1/2 tsp   salt
10g         or 1 sachet easy blend dried yeast)
100g       butter (melted and cool slightly)
3 tbsp     milk (warmed)
2 eggs     beaten
50g         sun-dried tomatoes (well drained and chopped finely)
milk        for brushing


Steps:

1. Lightly grease your baking tray / cookie sheet.
2. Sieve the bread flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the yeast, then pour in the butter, milk and eggs.  Mix together to form a dough.
3. Turn the dough on to a lightly floured working surface and knead for about 5 minutes. Alternatively, use an electric mixer with a dough hook.
4. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover and leave it to rise in a warm place for 1.5 hours until the dough doubled in size. Knock back or punch down the dough by kneading it for a few minutes.
5. Knead the sun-dried tomatoes into the dough, sprinkle the work surface with extra flour as the tomatoes are quite oily.
6. Divide the dough into 8 balls and place them on the baking tray /cookie sheet. Cover and leave them to rise for about 30 minutes until the bread doubled in size.
7. Brush the bread surface with milk.
8. Pre-heat the oven, bake with 230C/450F for 10-15 minutes, until you see the bread turned into golden brown.
9. Transfer the bread to a wire rack and leave to cool slightly before serving.

My Tips:

• If the sun-dried tomatoes are not preserved in olive oil with dried rosemary/ thyme/ basil/ oregano, I suggest you add in a bit of these dried herbs into the dough at the same time when you knead the sun-dried tomatoes in.  This can enhance the flavor.
• I researched about the ways to make my own sun-dried tomatoes. But after considering all the different methods, I decided to get them from supermarket, as I don't use them that often.  Here is one of the helpful websites I recommend: click here for details

My comments: I think the saltiness and flavor are just right, the texture of the bread is also better than I expect as this is the first time I am baking bread myself.  Not as difficult as I imagine. The only thing is need to plan ahead when to start your cooking, as you need to factor in the two slots of waiting time.