Sea salt and olive oil pain d'epi

I have attempted making bread before but it doesn't feel as spectacular as it does to make a nutritious pie or a beautiful cake. Yet this pain d'epi looked fun to create. Turns out I didn't really make it look like it is supposed to but it was still fun. The recipe is from Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy.

Start off by measuring 275g of strong white flour and pour into a bowl. Next add 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of yeast. Then gradually add 150-185ml of warm water, once it starts to look like a dough you can stop adding water, and also add 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Once it has all been brought together to make a soft dough take it out of the bowl and knead the mixture for a good ten minutes or until is stretchy.

Next dust a baking tray - I needed to use a bigger try which is why mine looked quite podgy. Get the dough and make it into a ball shape and then roll it out into a sausage shape. Cover the dough with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm area for an hour.

Once the dough has risen take off the clingfilm and put the bread shortest way facing you and with a pair of scissors at a 45 degree angle make a large cut every 10cms to the middle of the dough, and then the same on the other side so it starts to look like a wheat stalk. This means that you can rip off pieces easily to eat.

Before putting it in the oven sprinkle the bread with flour and sea salt and then place in the oven for about 25 minutes at gas mark 6. You know when the bread is ready because it will be golden coloured and when you tap it the bread will sound hollow.

The annoying thing was even though I had intended to save it and use the bread throughout the week we ended up eating it all in about two days. Just need to make them look less fat.