As two professional recipe developers and cookbook authors, Alex and I always urge home cooks to learn one skill: homemade bread! There’s really nothing like pulling golden brown bread out of the oven (just the smell in your kitchen is worth it!).
Here’s a bread recipe we’re head over heels for: it’s no-nonsense. Olive Bread Recipe! It’s inspired by our trip to France this summer, but you can easily make it at home using this recipe. Every time we make this for the family, everyone keeps saying how good it is! Here’s everything you need to know about making olive bread at home.
How to Make Olive Bread: An Overview
Here’s the basic outline of how this olive bread recipe works. This process takes about 5 minutes at night and then about 2 hours during the day. While you need to think ahead for the rest, this bread recipe is much simpler than ours. Sourdough bread And or Artisan Bread Recipe In fact, this is the fastest and easiest bread recipe we have. Here’s an outline of what you’ll need to do:
| Mix, let rest overnight. | 5 minutes active, 12 to 18 hours hands-off |
| Appearance and evidence | 5 minutes active, 1 hour hands off |
| to cook | 45 minutes, hands off |
| cold | 45 minutes, hands off |
A few tools are needed to make kneaded bread. It’s easiest to make with a Dutch oven, but you can also use a pizza stone. There are also many optional tools that make things easier, but are not required. Here’s what you need!
- Large Dutch Oven: Bake the bread in a lid dutch oven Keeps in the steam that the bread releases as it cooks. This makes for an extra crispy crust and the perfect addition. If you don’t have a dutch oven, you can use a pizza stone.
- Parchment Paper: You will use parchment paper inside the Dutch oven to prevent sticking during baking.
- Lame or Knife: Oh lame or a sharp knife used to score the bread.
- Kitchen scale: The best way to make bread is to weigh the dry ingredients, which gives the most accurate measurement (we use Kitchen scale).
Dutch oven vs pizza stone
A Dutch oven is a heavy, lidded cooking vessel used for braising meat and making soups and stews. You can use it on the stove or in the oven. All Dutch ovens are made of cast iron. Some have an enamel coating that makes them easy to clean.
The dutch oven we use for bread. Lodge 6 Quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven. As it steams, it creates the perfect crispy crust while baking. You can also use a Dutch oven to make soups, stews and more: visit us. Dutch oven recipes..
Alternatively, you can use a pizza stone to bake this no-knead bread! You will also need to generate extra steam by using a baking sheet in your oven and pouring boiling water over it when you add the bread. This creates steam, which creates a crispy crust. Here is The pizza stone we recommend.. (Of course, you can also use it for our popular Pizza dough recipe And all of us Pizza Recipes!)
Dough for olive bread
For this olive bread recipe, we use a mix. All purpose flour (for texture) and Bread flour (for strength). We find that this mixture creates a moderately open crumb (those lovely holes in the interior), a chewy crust, and a tangy flavor.
Personally, we use King Arthur brand organic flour. In testing many different flours, we find that it has the best and most consistent results for homemade bread recipes.
A note on olives
You can use any olive you like in this recipe: including green, black or purple olives. We like Castelvetrano olives: These are the type of green olives grown in Sicily with a light and fruity flavor that does not overpower the bread. But you can use any variety you like: kalamata olives, black or green olives, etc.
Why rest at night?
This olive bread recipe requires 1 day of thinking ahead: you’ll need to let the bread dough rest overnight. If you’re like us, you might have trouble thinking ahead and wonder if you can skip this step. Unfortunately, it is necessary for this recipe! Here’s why:
- A no-knead bread doesn’t need just 1 proof. Proofing is letting the bread stand at room temperature while the leavener (in this case, the yeast) does its magic to help the bread rise. A proof is usually about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Both of us Sourdough bread And Artisan Bread The bread needs folding and “proofing” several times. So doing just 1 proof for homemade bread is almost unheard of!
- Trade is resting overnight. Proofing requires a lot of time and effort to fold and proof many times. So to shortcut it, you can rest the bread overnight at room temperature. For us, this is a very worthwhile trade-off! You save hours of bread making on baking day.
How to shape the vine
The main part of making olive bread requires technique. Dough formation. You will shape it into a ball, called a. said. It’s easiest to learn how to shape dough by watching. Here’s a video tutorial for that. Bulul formation.
How to score bread
The lines on the top of a beautiful loaf of bread are called score lines. Scoring is cutting the top of the dough with a sharp knife to allow it to spread while baking. Here are some tips for scoring no-knead bread:
- Use your sharpest knife or cleaver. You will want the knife to be extremely sharp. We bought a lame For that (pronounced “loaf”) since we make a lot. Bread RecipesBut this is completely optional.
- Make shallow slits in the top of the dough. You just want to cut the surface – if it’s too deep it falls off, if it’s too shallow it cracks.
Storing Leftovers (Important)
Storing homemade bread is different from store-bought bread, as it contains no preservatives. There is also an important thing to keep in mind:
- Do not store in plastic! Keeping homemade bread in plastic makes it soggy and ruins the crispy crust. Make sure to wrap it in a cloth: a towel or a bread bag!
- Store at room temperature for 2 days: Once you bake your olive bread, it is best eaten within 48 hours. We wrap it in our cloth and store it at room temperature. Use a clean dish towel or bread bag.
- Or, freeze for up to 3 months: You can also freeze olive bread. It’s easy to cut your bread in half and freeze half of it! Let it cool to room temperature, then cut into pieces and store in a sealed bag or container.
Nutritional notes
This olive bread recipe is vegetarian, vegan, and plant-based.
Olive Bread (No Knead)
- Preparation Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (plus overnight)
- Cooking time: 45 minutes
- Total time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Production: 12 To 14 Slices 1x
- Category: bread
- Method: baked
- food: French
- Diet: Vegan
- 2 ½ cups Bread flour (350 grams)
- 1 cup All purpose flour (140 g)
- 1 teaspoon Instant or active dry yeast
- ½ tbsp Kosher salt (9 grams)
- 1 ½ cups lukewarm water (354 grams)
- 1 cup Chopped green olives, (dry weight 5.6oz) sliced, and dried (we used Castelvetrano olives)
- Mix the dough (the night before): Roughly chop the olives and pat dry. In a large bowl, whisk together the bread flour, all-purpose flour, yeast, and salt. Add hot water and olives. Stir with a wooden spoon or flour until all the flour is incorporated and the olives are evenly distributed. Cover tightly and let rest at room temperature for 12-18 hours (overnight).
- Shape the dough: When ready to bake, turn the dough out of the bowl onto a clean, lightly floured counter. With wet hands, place your hands behind the dough and gently pull the dough toward you to increase surface tension. Roll and repeat until your shape is formed, being careful not to tear the dough where the olives are close to the surface.
- 1 hour rest: Place the vine on a piece of parchment paper twice the width of the bowl. Cover the dough with an overturned large bowl and rest for 60 minutes.
- Preheat the oven: Preheat Dutch oven (with lid) to 450°F for 30 minutes.
- Score the bread: Use a sharp knife or ladle to cut the top of the dough at a slight angle.
- Bake in a Dutch oven at 450°F for 17 minutes: Working quickly and carefully with an oven mitt or clay, transfer the dough onto the parchment paper into the preheated Dutch oven, then set aside. Bake for 17 minutes.
- Reduce to 400°F and bake on the oven rack for 27 to 30 minutes: Reduce oven temperature to 400°F. Remove the Dutch oven, carefully remove the bread, and set the bread directly on the oven rack (without the parchment). Bake for an additional 25 to 27 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean or an internal temperature of the cavity registers 205 to 209 F.
- Chill and enjoy: Remove the loaf from the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack for at least 45 minutes. After cooling, the roti is ready to eat.
- Storage information: Store olive bread wrapped in cloth or in a bread bag on the counter for up to 2 days (don’t store in plastic or it will get soggy!) Alternatively, you can store (sliced) olives wrapped in foil in a plastic bag. Can be frozen for several months. This bread is perfect to serve with cheese, as a base for bruschetta, or enjoy on its own. Enjoy!