Olive bread

Let’s get things straight, baking is easy. That fragrant smell of freshly baked bread you can smell every time you go into the supermarket? There’s no reason why your kitchen can’t smell like that all the time. And you don’t need expensive bread making machine, specialist flours or a sacrifice to the Gods of Bread.

It’s the easiest bread recipe ever so you can add any flavours you want. I went for olives for a couple of reasons; firstly I don’t need to add salt to the mix like in other bread recipes.

Olives themselves have a bit of salt in them that is more than enough. Secondly, I’m not really a fan of olives, but if you cook them, fry them or bake them they become these delicious little kernels of flavour that enhance all the other flavours without being too strong. And I think that’s the main reason why I think olive bread works so well.

Unlike my usual recipes this one needs a bit of time for the dough to rise (about 50 minutes then another 30) but it’s worth it and I’d argue its offset by the short prep time. Did I mention this might be the sexiest bread recipe ever?

Olive Bread Ingredients

  • 500g of bread flour.
  • 10g of yeast (I use the pellets because they seem to last a lot longer)
  • 20g of olives (pitted, drained and chopped)
  • A teaspoon of sugar
    That’s it!
  1. Mix everything together in a large bowl (it really is that easy!).
  2. Boil 100ml of water and add another 200ml so you have the perfect water temperature.
  3. Make a well in the flour mix then add the water before mixing everything with your hands until you have a ball of dough.
  4. Add a little bit of flour onto a clean surface and knead the dough. Really get in there and massage your dough slowly and deeply. Make any noises you’d like – no judgment from us – until you have a beautifully smooth, even dough.
  5. Put it back into the mixing bowl, cover with a towel and leave it to rise for an hour.
  6. Knead it again to get rid of any more air bubbles, shape (any you like, I just shaped it into a ball) and slash the top a few times with a sharp knife (to stop it looking like a giant skull!)
  7. Cover and leave for another 30 minutes (last time I promise) while you preheat your oven to 220C.
  8. Add to a baking sheet, place into the middle of your oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until it’s nicely browned.
  9. Remove to a wiretray and let it cool before slicing. We sliced ours into thin slices and dipped them into olive oil still warm. I told you it was sexy.

At a glance
Serves 5
Cooking Time: 35 minutes
Prep time: 10 mins
Oven: 220C Conventional

This recipe was provided to us by www.ao.com/life