Bread with flax seeds and olive oil

Preparation steps

• Put flax seeds in a pot with 300 ml of water. When the water boils, reduce the heat and cook for 5 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
• Mix the yeast with the milk (fork or hand) to melt it almost completely. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the barley malt to it. Add the yeast with the milk and mix partially with the flour. Add all the other ingredients: flax seeds (with their liquid turning to mucus when cooled), salt, olive oil. Knead a smooth and pliable dough. Make it for a few minutes on a lightly floured work surface. Put the dough in a bowl, cover and let it rise for about 3 hours, or until it doubles in size.
• Roll out the dough on a lightly floured board and lightly spread it with your hands. Fold the upper third towards the middle, then fold the lower one over it. Cut the resulting loaf into three pieces and fold the cut edges into each to get balls. Leave them covered for half an hour.
• Stretch the balls into thicker “sausages” by rolling them and twist them into a braid. Place the braid in an oblong bread pan (slightly oiled or lined with baking paper). Cover the mold with an oiled piece of cling film and let the bread rise until it reaches the edge of the mold. Uncover the bread and let it rise until it rises slightly over the edge (meanwhile preheat the oven). Before baking, coat the bread with milk or water.
• Place in a preheated 200 ° C oven. After 10-15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 180 ° C and continue baking for another 30 minutes or until nicely browned on the surface. Remove the bread from the mold and place it directly on the oven rack for another 5 minutes, then take it out, place it on the cooling rack and cover with a clean cotton cloth. Wait for it to cool completely before cutting it.
• * if you do not have sourdough / yeast, put yeast (25 g fresh or 1 bag-7g dry). Of course, if you are using yeast it is not necessary for the dough to rise for 3 hours, about 1 or 1.5 hours will probably be enough. ** instead of barley malt powder you can add sugar, honey, etc.
• Since my yeast is with 50% moisture, I first brought it to 100% moisture by the following procedure: 1. I mixed 10 g of yeast with 10 g of flour and 6 g of water and left it to ferment for 6-8 hours, covered at room temperature. 2. I mixed 25 g of pre-fermented yeast with 25 g of flour and 18 g of water, then left it to ferment again for 6-8 hours. 3. I took 50 g of pre-fermented yeast (not all) and added another 50 g of flour and 45 g of water, mixed well and left to ferment for 6-8 hours. 4. Finally I took 50 g of the previous yeast again and added 50 g of flour and 50 g of water, mixed well and left to ferment for 6-8 hours. Now the yeast has reached 100% moisture and that’s how I used it for this bread.