Tomato Pesto, Herb Bread

This bread has given me some trouble but at the end I really enjoyed it. The reason for the trouble could have appeared because I halved the recipe, though usually not a problem this time it was, another option is that the recipe wasn't right in the first place.

Anyway if you experience the same problem (very dry crumbly dough), just add water slowly while kneading until the dough feels/looks 'right' (unfortunately I did not keep an eye on how much exactly I added).

The kinds of herbs you add is completely up to you, I also used a sun dried tomato pesto which can be substituted with basil pesto or chopped dried tomatoes. The herbs I used were oregano and what I though was thyme but apparently was my moms herbal tea (oops!).

Before and after first rise

Here's the baked loaf, for some reason the second rise didn't really happen...

At least the loaf got some nice air in it!

Tomato Pesto Bread:

(This is the original recipe which makes two loaves, I halved it)

4 cups flour

1 tsp sugar

11 gr dry yeast

½ tsp oregano

½ tsp thyme

3 tbsp tomato pesto

1 tbsp olive oil

1 ¼ (300 ml) cups warm water (more if needed)

1 tsp salt

additional olive oil

Sift 3 ½ cups of the flour into the mixing bowl. Add sugar, yeast, herbs and mix, make a hollow in the middle and add into it the oil, pesto and warm water start kneading with dough hook on low speed add the salt and rest of the flour, knead for 4 minutes on medium speed. (Add more water if needed)

Knead dough with your hands, form a ball, coat it in olive oil and let it rise until doubled (about an hour). Deflate the dough and divide it into two, shape each piece into a long loaf, place them on a baking pan next to each other and let rise again until double in size (again, about an hour)

Preheat oven to 190C.

Bake the loaves for 30-35 minutes, until slightly golden at the top.