Olive Bread

Ingredients

• about 430g bread flour, plus more as needed for shaping and pan

• 2 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast

• 2 teaspoons coarse salt

• 2 teaspoons dried oregano

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

• 135g roughly chopped olives

• 360ml water, close to room temperature at about 21°C

Instructions

1. In a large un-greased mixing bowl, whisk the flour, yeast, salt, oregano, and garlic powder together. Using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, mix in the olives. Pour in the water and gently mix together. The dough will seem dry and shaggy, but keep working it until all the flour is moistened. If needed, use your hands to work the dough ingredients together. The dough will be sticky. Shape into a ball in the bowl as best you can. (Tip: Stir dough by hand. Dough is too sticky for a mixer.)

2. Keeping the dough in the bowl, cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and set on the counter at room temperature. Allow to rise for 2-3 hours. The dough will just about double in size, stick to the sides of the bowl, and have a lot of air bubbles.

3. You can continue with step 4 immediately, but for absolute best flavor and texture, I strongly recommend letting this risen dough rest in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours and up to 3 days. (Even just a couple hours is good!) Place covered dough in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The dough will puff up during this time, but may begin to deflate after 2 days. That’s normal and nothing to worry about.

4. Lightly dust a large nonstick baking sheet (with or without rims and make sure it’s nonstick) with flour and/or cornmeal. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Using generously floured hands, shape into a ball as best you can. Dough is very sticky. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Loosely cover and allow dough to rest for 45 minutes. You will bake the dough on this prepared baking sheet. See recipe note if you want to use a pizza stone or Dutch oven.

5. During this 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 218°C.

6. When ready to bake, using a very sharp knife, score the dough with a slash or an X, about 1/2 inch deep. If the shaped loaf flattened out during the 45 minutes, use floured hands to reshape into a ball.

7. Place the shaped and scored dough (on the flour/cornmeal dusted pan) in the preheated oven on the center rack. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

8. Remove the bread from the oven and allow to cool for at least 10-20 minutes before slicing and serving. Store leftovers loosely covered at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Recipe credit.