themediterraneandish.com
Olive Bread
Crusty, crunchy and delicious! You can use your favorite pitted olives, but I like to use a mix of Kalamata and green olives for a variety of texture and flavor. This is an extra easy, beginner-friendly recipe with one thing to keep in mind: This is a higher hydration dough and is therefore sticky. It can be nerve-racking if you’re not used to working with sticky doughs, but try not to add too much flour to the dough. Instead, coat your hands with flour while you shape it into a ball. Or use a dough scraper, which sticks less than your hands. Make sure to coat the tea towel well with flour before adding the dough for the second rise.
Prep
15 min
Cook
50 min
Total
25h 5m
Serves
8
Instructions
- 01
Mix the dough: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and yeast. Add the olives, water, and olive oil and mix with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together and the flour is moistened.
- 02
First rise: Cover the bowl and leave it to rise overnight until more than doubled in size, 12 to 18 hours.
- 03
Shape the dough into a ball: Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Tip the bowl slightly and use a dough scraper or rubber spatula to gently remove the dough from the bowl onto the work surface. Gently fold the dough into itself, shaping it into a ball.
- 04
Second rise: Generously dust a tea towel with flour and place the dough onto the towel, seam side down. Loosely fold the towel over the dough and place it into a mixing bowl. Leave it to rise in a warm spot until almost doubled, about 2 hours.
- 05
Preheat the oven: 30 minutes before the dough has finished rising, arrange a rack in the lower third of the oven, set a 6 to 8-quart Dutch oven on the rack, and preheat to 475°F.
- 06
Bake the bread: Use oven mitts to carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven and remove the lid. Use the tea towel to invert the dough onto a piece of parchment paper. Using the edges of the parchment paper, lower the dough into the Dutch oven. Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes.
- 07
Crisp the crust: Remove the lid from the Dutch oven. Bake uncovered until the bread is golden brown, about 20 minutes longer.
- 08
Cool: Carefully lift the bread out of the Dutch oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
Nutrition
per serving · 1 serving
- Calories
- 216.7
- Protein
- 7g
- Carbs
- 40.1g
- Fat
- 2.8g
- Fiber
- 1.6g
- Sugar
- 0.2g
- Sat. fat
- 0.4g
- Sodium
- 294.3mg
Variations & swaps
How to Swap Flours
- You can have success swapping the flours in this olive bread recipe, you just need to be aware of which flours will work and which flours to avoid:
- All purpose: While this olive bread recipe calls for bread flour, you can use all-purpose flour and bread flour interchangeably. Bread flour can be easier to work with and the final loaf will have a softer, chewier interior, but the difference in this specific bread will be subtle.
- Whole wheat: You can also substitute up to half of the flour with whole wheat flour. Keep in mind that the bread will be slightly denser, as the bran in whole wheat flour will slightly hinder gluten formation.
- Gluten free? Unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend substituting gluten-free flour in this recipe. While it’s relatively straightforward to swap gluten-free flour in a lot of sweet baking, traditional bread baking relies on gluten development. I’d suggest using a bread recipe specifically developed to be gluten-free.
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