Courgette, Rosemary and Feta Bread - FFTO August Challenge

The Fresh From The Oven challenge was set this month Sally from My Custard Pie and the challenge was to make a bread using vegetables.  She was inspired by a glut of courgettes that she had in her garden.  We've had the same problem this year so I decided to make a tasty loaf with some of our courgettes that would liven up our sandwiches this week. 

500g (3 1/2 cups) self-raising flour

200ml warm water

2 sachets (2 x 7g) instant yeast

1 Tblsp sugar

2 tsp salt

2 courgettes, grated

2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh rosemary leaves, plus extra sprigs to garnish

80g Feta cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 200C. Grease a large loaf tin.

Sift the flour into a bowl and make a well in the centre.  Pour in the water, then add yeast, sugar, salt, grated courgette and roughly chopped rosemary leaves.

Gradually push flour into the centre mixing gently, until all the flour has been incorporated.  Coat your hands with flour and then knead the dough on a smooth floured surface for 5 -10 minutes, until smooth.  Or do what I did and mix the dough in a stand mixer on a really low speed to incorporate the flour and then knead at usual speed for 5 - 7 minutes until it's smooth and elastic.

Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with clingfilm, and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes until it's doubled in size.  I leave my dough in my mixer as the plastic shield on it provides a good seal and dough rises happily in there.  It also saves washing another bowl.

Knock back dough with your hands for 1 minute and then knead goat’s cheese into the dough, until well combined.  I just mixed the goats cheese in using a very low speed on my stand mixer for 1/2 - 1 minute.

Put the dough into your prepared loaf tin, cover with clingfilm and leave for another 30 minutes until it has risen again.

Put a couple of rosemary sprigs on top of the bread to make it look pretty and then bake the loaf for 30 minutes, or until the bread is cooked and golden on top.  You can check it's cooked because the loaf will make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.