Lara's Dinner Party (Part 3, Pain D'epi)

A Pain D'epi is a French loaf made in the shape of a stalk of wheat. This means the bread is almost like a tear and share, so works really well served with the salad and starter as the guests can tear off a chunk for themselves rather than slice one. The recipe is a basic bread dough so you can make a regular loaf or dinner rolls if you prefer.
1)Combine 500g strong white bread flour in a bowl with a 7g sachet of yeast and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Make sure the yeast and salt don't directly contact.
2)Stir in 325ml of lukewarm water and a tablespoon of virgin olive oil or other fat such as 25g lard or vegetable shortening until you have a nice soft dough.
3)Lightly dust the work surface with flour and knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic and cleans the surface of bits of itself. About 10 minutes.
4)Coat in oil and leave in a covered bowl in a slightly warm place or room temperature until doubled in size, about 1-2 hours depending on the warmth of the place you left it, or overnight in the fridge.
5)Turn the risen dough out on a floured surface and punch the air holes down.
6)Divide the dough in two and roll each piece out to a long baguette shape, and put on a floured tin and cover them with oiled cling film to rise again for about 45 minutes.
7)Once they've doubled again, take a pair of kitchen scissors and snip a blob of dough and turn it one way then snip another blob of dough about the same size as the first beneath it

and turn it the opposite way. Don't cut them all the way down, leave them connected. This is quite fiddly and messy but they will look neat after they've baked. Have each blob of dough you snip equal size as best you can.
8)Purely for the look, dust them lightly with more flour. Bake in a pre-heated steamy oven at 180 degrees until golden brown and hollow when tapped on the bottom. You may need to swap the loaves in the oven so they bake evenly.
9)Take them out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.