The olive bread loaf is a homemade leavened bread that I love and often make. Our family loves olive bread; Matilde enjoys it a lot, and I love kneading and preparing it at home, often with her. For this recipe, you will need very few ingredients and you won’t even have to get your hands dirty, mix everything with a spatula (or a fork), within minutes, and you’ll create a soft and fragrant olive bread loaf, with a tasty crumb and a crispy crust, that stays soft for days!
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 3 Hours
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: a loaf of about 1 lbs
- Cooking methods: Oven, Electric Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tsp salt
- 10 black olives
- 1 1/4 tsp fresh yeast
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- to taste re-milled durum wheat semolina flour
Steps
The olive bread loaf is very simple to prepare. First, put the fresh yeast in a small bowl, add a pinch of sugar, a little lukewarm water taken from the total, and let it dissolve completely.
In a bowl, place the flour, the dissolved yeast in water and sugar, the remaining lukewarm water, and quickly mix with a spatula.
Add the pitted and chopped black olives, the salt, and still using the spatula, combine everything to form a soft and homogeneous dough. Transfer it to a work surface, add a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil (I measured it with an oil sprayer, pressing twice) and knead quickly.
Put the dough back in the bowl and let it rise for about two hours; it should double in size.
After the rising time, quickly work the dough on a work surface floured with re-milled durum wheat semolina flour, and form a sort of loaf. If you have it, transfer it to a bread basket dusted with a bit of semolina flour and let it rise for another hour.
Flip the bread onto a sheet of parchment paper, make small cuts with a knife, and bake the olive loaf in a preheated oven at 410°F for about 30 minutes. It should brown but not excessively.
Notes:
The olive bread loaf keeps at room temperature for 5-6 days. I used black olives, but white ones work great too. Instead of all-purpose flour, you can also use 00 flour, durum wheat semolina, or use half and half. If you want to use whole wheat, replace half of the all-purpose or 00 flour with it and add a few more drops of water.
More homemade bread recipes HERE
