Compo & Zena: Courgette Crown Bread

[Chez]

As requested. What follows is the original recipe - I have made notes on my own variation/s at the end.

Courgette Crown Bread

Serves 8

450g (1lb) courgettes, coarsley grated
salt
500g/1 1/4lbs/5 cups plain flour
2 sachets fast-action yeast
60g/4 tbsp Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Ground black pepper
30ml/ 2 tbsp olive oil
lukewarm water, to mix
milk, to glaze
sesame seeds, to garnish

Layer the courgettes and sprinkly lightly with salt. Leave to drain for 30 mins, then pat dry.
Mix the flour, yeast and Parmesan together and season with black pepper.
Stir in the oil and courgettes. Add enough warm water to give you a firm dough.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is smooth, then return to the mixing bowl, cover it with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place.
Meanwhile, grease and line a 23cm/9" round sandwich tin. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. When the dough has doubled in size, turn it out of the bowl, punch it down and knead it lightly. Break into eight balls. Place one ball in the centre of the tin, with the remaining seven around the central ball, so that they are all touching. Brush the tops with milk and sprinkle over the sesame seeds.
Allow to rise again, then bake for 25 mins, or until golden brown. Cool slightly in the tin, the turn out the bread to cool further.

My notes:
I bake this bread just on a greased oven tray. Placing the balls together as above is great for a group of people, but can be too big a quantity for day to day use. I also bake the balls separately to make bread rolls. Good for pulling individual rolls out of the freezer according to how many you are feeding. A loaf works well too.

I no longer bother draining the courgettes. It simply means not adding the lukewarm water later. It does need the salt I find, so I add about a tsp of salt to the mix. Also, I routinely add chopped sundried tomato to the mix - delicious! And I prefer this bread topped with Parmesan, instead of sesame seeds. You can do anything you want with it though. That's the delight of it.

[Zena]

Thanks Chez.

I have some time off work this week so will be trying both this and the brownie recipe!

[mazmezroz]

Thanks Chez, am gonna try this pronto, as I have returned from holiday to the attack of the killer courgettes. Have about 20 of them, some the size of exocet missiles.

Couple of questions: does colour of courgette matter? I have yellow as well as various green varieties.

You can freeze this can't you????? Does it come out ok, cos bread sometimes goes a bit crumbly?????

Ta!

Love and courgettes
Maz
X

[Chez]

Hello Maz - the only difference with yellow courgettes will be that of course you won't get the green bits. If that doesn't matter to you, then they should be just fine.

This bread freezes well, but then I have not frozen a loaf. Just the rolls and the 'break & share' method in the recipe. These don't go crumbly at all (I heat in tin foil packets at about 200C for 15-20mins) and retain a lovely moist texture. I think it should slice well - might have try a roll in the weekend and see how it does.