Olive bread

This is a good bread.  Definitely got a high Ed-rating, and most recently a high real-person rating, too, when I brought it to dinner the other day.  Use good kalamata olives - canned olives will just taste like canned olives, which can be tasty if there's nothing else to eat in your house, but the kalamata olives taste way better.  This bread used a starter, which is how you'd do sourdough if you're into that, but I'm not, because there's no way I'd keep a sourdough starter alive; I can't even keep plants alive.  Anyway, I find the bread is easier to knead when you've used a starter, and then it rises wonderfully once you knead in all the extra stuff.  But I haven't figured out how to get those big holes, which to me is the mark of tasty bread.  Ed likes that this stuff is a pretty uniform texture.  I want big holes, like in the no-knead bread that I sometimes make.  I probably just have to let it rise longer after I shape it.  

This is probably ~1C olives.  Looks like a lot, but it's just right.

Kalamata Olive Bread

Makes one loaf

Starter:

2-2.5C flour

1/4tsp yeast

1.75C warm water

Mix together all the start ingredients.  It was really humid today, so I used 2.5C flour instead of the usual 2.  Then let that sit for 2 hours.  At the end, it should look all loose and bubbly, like the photo above.

Dough:

2-3C flour

~1C olives

~1tbs salt

a glug or two of olive oil

Add two cups of flour and the salt and olive oil to the start, and mix that with a spoon until it comes together enough to knead.  Knead for a while, until it makes a nice little doughball.  Add the olives, and knead/fold until the olives are all combined.  You'll probably need to add another cup of flour to keep things workable during this process.  

Looks like too many olives...

But it's not too many - just right!

Let the kneaded dough sit in a greased bowl for another 2 hours.  At the end, it should be soft and pillowy, and about twice as large.  Transfer that to a baking sheet, that's either been greased or has coarse cornmeal on it.  

Preheat the oven to 450.  Once that's pre-heated, in goes the dough, and turn the oven down to 350.  Bake for 20-40min, checking every 10min or so; remove the bread once it's toasty golden brown on top, and has a hollow sound when you knock on the bottom.  This one took 40min for me.

Try to let it cool at least 5-10min before cutting into it.

Enjoy!