Olive bread: the olives go in after the first rise
Olives mixed into the dough at the start do two bad things at once: their salt and brine slow the yeast, and the firm pieces tear the developing gluten network and get mashed to a pulp themselves, so the loaf rises less. The solution is simple: additions go in after the first rise, wrapped into the flattened dough with a letter fold. The gluten is already built by then, and the olives only need distributing evenly.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Dough 135 min
- Shaping 70 min
- Baking 45 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneMix and fold the dough
Combine the flour, salt and yeast, add the water and oil and stir with a spoon 2 minutes. The dough will be wet and shaggy. Over the next hour do three sets of folds at 20-minute intervals: with a wet hand, stretch the dough up and fold it to the middle, four times around.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 350 ml water · 5 g dried yeast · 10 g salt · 3 tbsp olive oil
Three sets of folds, twenty minutes apartLet it rise
Cover and leave 60 minutes, until the dough has doubled and is full of bubbles. Only now is it ready for the additions — the gluten network is built and the salt from the olives cannot weaken it.
Dry the olives and work them in
Halve the olives and pat them dry — wet ones water down the dough where they touch it and leave holes in the loaf. Tip the dough onto a floured counter, flatten it into a rectangle, scatter over the olives, rosemary and garlic, and fold in three like a letter. Repeat once more.
Ingredients: 180 g black olives · 1 tbsp dried rosemary · 2 cloves garlic
TipOlives from brine carry a good deal of salt and moisture. Drained and dried they distribute evenly; straight from the jar they sink and form wet pockets.
Dried olives, folded in three like a letterShape the loaf
Gently form the dough into an oval, tucking the edges underneath until the surface is taut. Don't knead — this is about skin tension, not about expelling air. Set it seam up in a basket lined with a floured cloth.
A taut surface, olives just under the skinProve an hour and heat the oven
Cover and leave 60 minutes. After 30, put a lidded cast-iron pot in the oven and heat to 240 °C. The readiness test: a pressed finger leaves a dent that springs back slowly.
An hour; the pot heats from halfwayBake covered, then uncovered
Turn the loaf onto paper seam down, score it with a sharp blade and lower it into the hot pot. Bake 25 minutes covered at 240 °C, then take the lid off, drop to 220 °C and bake 18 minutes, until the crust is dark. Brush the hot loaf with olive oil and cool on a rack for an hour.
Ingredients: 60 g flour for dusting · 1 tbsp olive oil
TipOlives on the surface scorch faster than the dough. If they darken too much after the lid comes off, drape foil loosely over the loaf for the last 8 minutes.
Twenty-five minutes covered, eighteen without
Before you start
Which olives
Black kalamata give the most flavour and hold together in the dough. Avoid chemically blackened olives (the very cheap, perfectly round ones) — they are soft and bland and add almost no flavour to the bread.
Other additions
Sun-dried tomatoes (drained of oil), walnuts, fried onion, cubes of feta. The rule holds: 200 g of additions at most per 500 g of flour, and always after the first rise.
What to eat it with
Oil and balsamic, cheese, tomato soup. Stale, it makes excellent croutons and panzanella.
Without a pot
Bake on a preheated tray with a dish of boiling water on the oven floor. The crust will be thinner and the loaf a little flatter, but the difference is smaller than you would expect.
