Niçoise Picnic Squares #BreadBakers

Baked with the eponymous French salad inspired toppings on a savory quick bread layer, these Niçoise picnic squares are perfect to pack up and go! 

We have FINALLY been enjoying some picnic friendly weather in this weirdest of summers so these pretty squares have come in handy. They travel well and are tasty as well as filling.

My toppings, loosely based on the ingredients of a classic French Salade Niçoise, shout Summer is here! for me. I hope they do for you as well. 

Niçoise Picnic Squares

Depending on your tastes or what you have on hand, the toppings can be changed up but don’t leave out the seasoning and herbs in the fluffy bread base as they add so much flavor to the squares. Keep the vegetables thin or, as I have, parboil or boil them first to make sure they will be cooked completely. 

Ingredients

For the topping:

6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 egg

3 artichoke hearts, drained well and quartered

A few pitted black olives, halved or slices

1/4  purple onion, thinly sliced

7-8 anchovies, well drained

8-12 new or small waxy potatoes

12 fine green beans 

For the base:

1 1/2 cups or 190g plain flour

1 tablespoon minced fresh herbs, such as thyme, oregano and/or rosemary

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 oz or 57g grated mozzarella

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/3 cup or 80ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing the pan and drizzling on the bread before baking

For baking:

Grated Parmesan

For serving: 

small leaves of rosemary, thyme and basil

grated Parmesan

Method

Heat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and put a rack in the middle of it. Grease and line a 9 in or 23cm square baking pan, leaving enough of a paper overhang that you can grab it to lift out the bread later. Tip: Scrunching the baking parchment into a tight ball then spreading it back out makes it much easier to fit into a square pan nicely. 

Put a small pot of salted water on to boil and fill a small bowl with ice and cold water. When the water boils, add in the green beans and cook for 1 minute. Use tongs to remove the green beans to the ice water bowl. 

Add the new potatoes to the boiling water. 

Cook for 5 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the biggest one goes in easy. Remove the potatoes from the pot and set aside to cool. 

Add your egg to the pot and bring the water back to the boil. Boil for one minute, then remove the pot from the heat and cover for 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes are up, transfer the egg to the ice water bowl. When cool enough, peel and quarter.

Meanwhile, halve the cherry tomatoes and quarter the artichoke hearts. Put the tomatoes and artichokes on paper towels and let them sit for the few minutes it takes you to prepare the batter. 

For the base, whisk the flour, herbs, baking powder, salt, crushed red pepper and black pepper in a large bowl. 

Add in the mozzarella and stir to coat. 

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and oil. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and fold until just combined. 

Scrape the batter into the lined pan.

Spread it out evenly. The batter is thick and the layer is thin, so you’ll have to poke and push it into the corners.

Arrange the topping ingredients on top in whatever pattern you like, keeping them to a single layer – drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on some Parmesan.

Bake for 22-25 minutes or until the edges are golden and a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean. 

Transfer the bread pan to a rack, then wait five minutes before running a table knife around the edges. Lift out the bread, then slide off the paper. 

Return the bread to the rack and leave it to cool a bit before cutting it into squares. 

Sprinkle the top with the herb leaves and more Parmesan.

The squares are best eaten on the day they’re made but they can be stored overnight in the refrigerator and reheated in a warm oven, if they last that long. We also enjoyed them cold! 

Enjoy! 

It's the second Tuesday of the month so that means it's time for me and my fellow Bread Bakers to share our bakes. This month we also celebrate a special anniversary: 10 years since we created the Bread Bakers group! Our inaugural event was actually in September though. You can read my very first post here.

 https://www.foodlustpeoplelove.com/2014/09/fionas-wonderful-bread.html

Our theme this month is picnic bread! Many thanks to our host, Camilla from Culinary Cam. Check out the recipe links below.

• Baked Whole Wheat Kachori by Cook with Renu
• Checkerboard Rolls by Passion Kneaded
• Cheddar and Herb Loaf by Palatable Pastime
• Easy Sourdough French Country Bread by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Eggless Fruit & Nut Chocolate Banana Loaf by Sneha's Recipe
• Garlic Herb Fan Rolls by A Messy Kitchen
• Hushpuppies by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Niçoise Picnic Squares by Food Lust People Love
• Schiacciata all'Uva by Culinary Cam

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin these Niçoise Picnic Squares!

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