Olive Bread

Homemade olive bread studded with black olives and flecked with fragrant toasty fennel seeds and rosemary. A no knead bread recipe brimming with savory flavor and a dreamy crusty crust that makes elite sandwiches.

Course Baked Goods

Cuisine Italian

Keyword olive bread

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 30

Resting Time 6 45

Total Time 7 30

Servings people

Calories 176kcal

Author Florentina

Ingredients

1 cup Kalamata olives (pitted + sliced or chopped)
2.75 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used whole spelt flour)
2 tsp instant yeast
1.5 cups warm water
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp fine sea salt
1 Tbsp fennel seeds toasted
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary roughly chopped

Instructions

Pat dry the olives with a paper towel and remove as much moisture as possible. Slice or chop them and set aside until needed.
In a large bowl combine the flour, yeast, fennel and rosemary.
2.75 cups all purpose flour, 2 tsp instant yeast, 1 Tbsp fennel seeds, 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
Add the olives.
1 cup Kalamata olives
Mix the water, vinegar and salt and pour it over the flour and olives. Use a spatula and mix everything until combined. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and a clean tea towel and let it sit in a draft free area for 3 hours.
1.5 cups warm water, 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 2 tsp fine sea salt
After 3 hours have passed uncover the dough. Flour your hand well and start reaching to the bottom of the bowl grabbing the dough stretching it and folding onto itself towards the center spinning the bowl around as you go. Go around the bowl a couple of times just stretching and folding the dough onto itself taking care not to break the gluten strands. (If the dough feels too sticky to you just sprinkle some flour around the sides of the bowl to make the "stretch + fold" process easier to handle)
Cover the bowl again and set aside to rise another 3 hours.
Have a large shallow bowl on stand by. Prepare a large piece of parchment paper and sprinkle with flour.
Uncover the dough and sprinkle some flour along the sides of the bowl. Tilt the bowl on its side and carefully guide the dough onto the floured parchment paper using your floured hand to help guide it out. (It’s going to look like a shaggy blob at this point and that’s OK). WATCH VIDEO!
SHAPE - Flour your hands well and stretch + fold the dough onto itself from bottom to the top to form a round loaf. Take care not to break the gluten strands and do not knead. Form a tight loaf.
Flip the loaf so that the top seam ends up on the bottom (you can use a dough scraper here if you feel it helps you with the flipping). Tuck the sides underneath as best you can to create a tight loaf.
Using the parchment paper as handles transfer the loaf to the shallow bowl, this will prevent the dough from spilling outwards as the gluten bounces back.
Preheat your oven to 500” F with either a pizza stone or large cast iron skillet on the bottom third rack. Preheat for 45 minutes as this will ensure an evenly hot stone area and give plenty of time for the gluten in the bread loaf to spring back avoiding a dense loaf.
At this point If you feel it necessary you can give your loaf a final shape by tucking the sides underneath to create a tighter loaf with just a little tension. This is only necessary if your loaf looks too loose, you want to see a little tension to prevent the dough from spreading sideways during baking.
Using a sharp knife or dough blade carve an X in the top of the loaf. Grab the parchment paper handles and transfer the bread to the hot oven. (For an extra crispy crust you can splash a little water over the top of loaf to create steam).
Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes until a nice dark crust is formed.
Using oven mitts transfer the bread to a cooling rack and rest it on its side for the steam to escape and the bread to stay crusty. (Prop the side with a can of tomatoes or a bowl if needed).

Notes

Flour - A perfect mix of all purpose and whole wheat flour will yield a beautifully crusty rustic loaf that holds up great to the olives while still airy but hearty. You can use bread flour if you like but it's not necessary unless you prefer a chewier crumb.
Why do we score the dough? - This is a very important step just before baking the bread. The slits will basically show the loaf which way to rise, if this step is omitted the dough is going to burst at its weakest point and expand that way.

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