Ingredients

1 kg white bread wheat flour

10 g instant dried yeast

4 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 cups lukewarm water and a little more if necessary

2 large ripe tomatoes, halved

1 large onion, cut in half

2 Tbs olive oil

Method

The bread, when sliced, toasts beautifully. ({Photo: Tony Jackman)

Preheat the oven to 220℃. Oil a roasting pan with 2 Tbs olive oil. Place tomato halves and onion halves cut-side down in the oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast until golden and soft and there are delicious aromas emitting from the kitchen. Should take an hour or more. Set aside. Close the oven door and turn off the heat so that you can prove the dough in a warm oven later. If the oven is cool when it’s time to prove the dough, reheat the oven and turn it off again.

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast and sugar and stir very well with a wooden spoon. Only stir in the salt after this so that it does not neutralise the yeast. 

Add lukewarm water a little at a time, while kneading the dough, until it is all combined. Chop the onion and tomatoes and work into the dough with your hands. Now add 2 Tbs of the olive oil and juices left over in the oven pan in which you roasted the tomatoes and onion, knead that into the dough, and continue folding and kneading until it is a nice plump ball of dough and not too sticky. Work a little more flour in if it’s too sticky/a little more water if too dry.

Leave the ball of dough in the bowl, cover with a slightly damp tea towel, and put it in a warm place for 20 minutes (the warm oven).

Knead the dough again for a minute or two, folding and turning.

Grease or spray a heavy bottomed oven pot. Place the dough in the centre. Cover again with a damp tea towel.

Turn the oven off, put the covered bowl of dough in the middle of a rack in the centre of the oven, close the door and leave it for 40 minutes in the warmth for its second rise.

Check that you have braai coals. Place the pot in the braai and immediately place hot coals all around the base, and a few more coals on top. Keep replenishing the coals at the base and on the lid for a full hour. DM/TGIFood

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