Provençale Christmas Bread

Name: Provençale Christmas Bread (Pompe à Huile)
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 6 cups / 1 kg white bread flour; 4 oz / 100 g fresh yeast; 1 cup / 250 ml warm water; Scant 2 cups / 225 g confectioners’ sugar; 1 cup / 250 ml olive oil; 1 tablespoon orange flower water (or 1 teaspoon grated orange zest); 1 tablespoon orange flower water (or 1 teaspoon grated orange zest); 1 tablespoon aniseeds, optional; Sweet black coffee or a yolk of egg for gilding; Sweet black coffee or a yolk of egg for gilding

Pompe à Huile

Preparation info

Makes
2 x 12
inch

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Sacred Food

By Elisabeth Luard

Published 2001

About

The central bread, that represents Jesus, is the most variable of all the Christmas goodies. But everyone seems to agree that the bread should be richer than everyday bread, and it must be broken, never cut with a knife.

Ingredients

6 cups / 1 kg white bread flour
4 oz / 100

Europe
France
Bread
Vegetarian
Christmas

Method

Sift the flour into a large, warm bowl.
Mix the yeast in a small bowl with half a glass of the warm water. Stir in 5 heaped tablespoons of the flour—enough to work into a dough ball. Cut a deep cross in the ball and put it in a bowl of warm water. Leave it until it swells and bobs to the surface; it may do so immediately, or it may take 10 minutes or so.