Perfect for your Platinum Jubilee celebrations, or even just a toast to warmer days, bake this showstopper bread crown to share with friends and family.

The recipe uses sweet slow-roasted cherry tomatoes paired with a tangy Cheddar cheese. However, if this isn’t to your taste, I’ve suggested some alternatives at the end.

Ingredients

300g strong white wheat bread flour

5g dried easy bake yeast

10g salt

30g butter, cubed

30g sugar

100ml milk (full fat if possible)

100g water

1 egg, beaten (for eggwash – optional)

For the filling

200g cherry tomatoes, halved

1 – 2 garlic cloves, peeled

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

Handful of fresh basil leaves

25g grated Cheddar cheese (or another strong cheese)

Method

Make your filling

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C (320F). Place the cherry tomatoes and garlic cloves into a large roasting dish. Season with the salt and drizzle with olive oil.

2. Roast the tomatoes and garlic for 1 hour. Keep checking on the tomatoes so that they don’t burn. You need the tomatoes to be quite dry once roasted so that your filling isn’t too wet.

3. Cool the tomatoes and garlic completely. Then blitz them in a food processor with the basil leaves until you have a thick and slightly chunky paste. Stir in the grated cheese.

4. Cover the filling and store in the fridge whilst you make the dough.

Make your dough

5. Gently heat the milk and butter together just until the butter melts. Do not let the mixture become too hot – it should be no warmer than your hand when added to the dough. Let the mixture cool if needed.

6. Add the sugar and water into the butter and milk mixture and set aside.

7. Weigh out the flour into a large bowl. Add the yeast into one side of the bowl and the salt into the other side. Mix all the dry ingredients together.

8. Pour in the cooled butter and milk mixture and mix all the ingredients together into a dough.

9. Turn the dough out onto an unfloured surface and knead for 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.

10. Shape the dough into a rough ball and place it back into the bowl. Cover the dough and leave it to rise for 1.5 hours.

Shape your loaf

11. Turn the risen dough out onto an unfloured surface and gently deflate it. Divide the dough into 18 equal pieces, roughly 30g each.

12. Take a piece of dough, flatten it out and place 1/2 a teaspoon of filling in the centre of the dough.

13. Stretch out the sides of the piece of dough and fold them into the middle, over the filling. Then turn the dough over and roll it into a smooth ball.

14. Repeat for each piece of dough. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.

Bake your loaf

15. Arrange the balls of dough in two circles on the baking paper, one circle around the other. Space the balls of dough slightly apart so that they join once risen.

16. Cover the dough and leave it to rise for 1 hour. Pre-heat the oven to 215C (420F).

17. Once risen, brush the dough with the beaten egg (optional).

18. Bake the dough for 10 minutes in the pre-heated oven, then lower the oven temperature to 205C (400F) and bake for a further 8 – 10 minutes. Cover the bread with foil towards the end of the baking time if the dough is getting too brown.

19. The bread should be a deep golden-brown colour all over, well baked through and sound hollow when tapped underneath, once baked. Cool before serving – enjoy!

Alternative fillings

Create your own delicious fillings for this loaf. The key is to make sure that the filling is relatively dry – more like a paste. Otherwise it will seep out and make shaping the bread really difficult.

You could try sweet or savoury fillings:

 – Pesto and grated cheese

 – Olive tapenade and feta

 – Butter and cinnamon sugar