I had a fennel in my veg box recently that I wasn’t sure what to do with. I love the taste of fennel, and it has lots of health benefits, as well as the bulb being a good source of fibre, potassium and vitamin C. I didn’t fancy soup, or pesto, or eating it as part of a roast that day. So I hit on the idea of baking it into a bread recipe! I knew fennel goes beautifully with olives, so decided to make vegan fennel and olive bread rolls. They were delicious with Just Vegan butter, and also with cashew cheese, smoked Applewood and salad.
Here’s how I made them:
Ingredients
- Medium-sized whole fennel bulb that has been roasted and liquidised in a food processor with 150ml warm water
- 750 g strong white bread flour
- 7g yeast
- 300 ml warm water
- Jar black olives, chopped
- ½ tsp salt
- Tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Tbsp fennel seeds
- Rock salt
Method
Once you’ve prepared the fennel, add the flour, yeast, salt and sugar to a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the olive oil, water, and liquidised fennel.
Mix together to form a dough, and knead for ten minutes until you can stretch the dough so it’s thin enough to see through and it springs back when you poke your finger in it.
Put the dough in a clean bowl and leave for an hour to prove.
Then divide the dough into 10 equal size strips and roll them into sausages of about 32 cm in length.
To make knotted rolls, tie the sausage of dough into a loose knot as above. Tuck one end over the top of the roll into the centre, and tuck the other end to meet it under the roll to the centre. Leave to prove again for half an hour.
Toast the fennel seeds in a dry pan for a couple of minutes and sprinkle on top of the rolls, along with a little rock salt.
Bake for 15-20 minutes in the oven until your fennel and olive bread rolls are golden and enjoy!
These are very good with our truffle oil, lemon and walnut spaghetti!