This is not your ordinary bread, flecked with olives and packed with flavour. It adds a delightful intensity to scrambled eggs or soup. (Try it with this sweet potato and miso soup).
Makes 1 loaf
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes + 1 hour 40 minutes proving time
Ingredients
80g of pitted Kalamata olives
1 sachet of yeast
300ml warm water
5g fresh rosemary
500g strong white bread flour
10g salt
oil, for greasing
Method
Add the yeast to the warm water and set aside to activate for around 15 minutes.
In the meantime, slice the rosemary as finely as possible and roughly chop the olives.
Measure out the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the rosemary and olives and combine with a wooden spoon.
Create a well in the centre of the flour mixture and add the water and yeast mixture. Gently mix with the wooden spoon until it is a shaggy dough, then use your hands to form this into a ball.
Knead the dough for around 5 minutes on a work surface dusted with flour. Once the dough feels elastic and silky, form it into a ball and place it in a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with cling film and leave it to prove for around one hour.
Tip the risen dough back onto your work surface and knead for another five minutes. Roll it into a log shape, tucking the ends under and put it into a greased loaf tin. Allow it to prove a second time for around 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 170°C and put a baking tray in the bottom of the oven while heating. When you put the bread in the oven, add around 300mls of cold water to the baking tray in the bottom. The steam helps the crust form.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
Remove and take the bread out of the tin, putting it on a wire rack to cool.
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