FFwD: Back-of-the-Card Wild Herb Bread & Daisy Butter

Today´s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is a Back-of-the-Card Cheese and Olive Bread – in my case this would be called a Back-of-the-Card Wild Herb Bread with Daisy Butter. There are times when you need bread in a hurry, and this week's recipe for this easy quick bread will help you rise to the challenge.

The original recipe for this bread was printed on a recipe card produced by the Comté cheese makers. Comté is a well-known French cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. This cheese has a pale creamy yellow color,  a relatively hard texture, and  a mild and slightly  nutty and sweet taste. Comté cheese is part of the ingredients for today´s quick bread. The other ingredients listed in the recipe are two other cheeses such as Gruyère or Swiss (I went with Comté only), AP (plain) flour, a good amount of baking powder, fine salt, eggs, milk, tapenade or pesto (I used homemade wild herb pesto), chopped black olives (I went with 100 grams of wild herbs) and the grated zest of one organic lemon.

We are great fans of slow food, and our usual yeast based breads are a case in point. They are wonderful with their big, uneven bubbles, stretchy crumb and golden crust that is both crisp and chewy at the same time. But there are times when instant, or relatively instant, gratification is called for. Thank goodness, then, for quick bread recipes such as this one. This easy recipe is just right for when you want bread in a hurry. It is ready and can be enjoyed in less than an hour, it requires no yeast and therefore no rising time, no kneading and no waiting. The finished bread is dense, hearty and complex-tasting

You can make many variations to this bread for any occasion or according to what you have on hand, what your taste preferences are or what the season has to offer – such as the lovely wild herbs that I used. These herbs are picked early in the morning, shipped off the same day and should be used as soon as they reach your doorstep – which is what I did. I used part of them to make a wild herb pesto to be included in the batter instead of the tapenade and the rest of the wild herbs I chopped up and added them to the dough instead of the chopped olives.

We like these quick bread best fresh from the oven and with lots of butter. And to us this nice wild herb variation of the back-of-the-card bread recipe, called for an equally delicious and somewhat unusual butter. So, I was happy to oblige and prepared a daisy butter – nothing nicer than getting the kids involved in some daisy picking in our garden.

Remember that baking powder breads tend to stale relatively quickly and should be eaten soon after baking. But with the variations that I made to the recipe or rather the additions that I made, that did not seem to be a great burden – we enjoyed a simple homemade chicken noodle soup with this bread and the accompanying butter and everyone seemed to be quite happy with this delicious and colorful combination.

If you are interested in the back-of-the-card breads that the other members of the French Fridays with Dorie group quickly baked, please do click here.

Have a wonderful weekend! - Bon week-end! – Bonne fin de semaine! – Ein schönes Wochenende!