Greek Olive Bread
This was my first attempt at a bread with any kind of inclusion (unless you count small nuts in a granary loaf). From several recipes gleaned out of the infosphere, I came up with this one, which I have made twice very successfully.
You will need (for one quite substantial loaf):
- 1 teasp dried yeast
- 300g strong white flour
- 80g wholemeal flour
- 1 teasp sea salt
- 200ml warm water
- 4 teasp olive oil
- 6 teasp or 2 tbsp skimmed milk (alternative is 4 teasp evaporated milk and a little extra water, but I prefer my variation)
- 1 tbsp honey
- good handful (about 50g) of pitted, sliced black olives
Yeast should be mixed with 50ml of the warm water and 3-4 teasp of the flour, and allowed to stand for about 10 minutes, until it starts to froth.
Meanwhile, mix the two kinds of flour with the salt in a suitable mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre.Into this well, pour the oil, milk, honey, yeast mixture and the remaining water. Moving the flour in from the sides until all liquid is absorbed, continue to mix well until the dough starts to come away from the sides of the bowl. It will still be a fairly stiff and sticky dough.
Move the dough to a well-floured surface and knead for a good 15 minutes, stretching the dough frequently before compressing it - this seems to help make longer fibres in the gluten! Once this is done, put into an oiled bowl - perhaps wash out the mixing bowl and use that - and set it in a warm place, covered with a damp cloth to allow it to rise. It should double in size in about 60 to 90 minutes.
Knock the bread down (in other words, drop it gently out of the bowl on to a floured surface to deflate it) and knead for a short while, then allow to stand in the warm spot (covered, in the bowl) for another ten minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly-floured surface, and use a rolling pin to flatten it into a rectangle about 8 inches (20cm) wide and about a quarter of an inch (6mm) thick. Be sure that this width (plus about 30%) will fit onto your baking tray - the loaf has a tendency to expand!
Having rolled it out, brush the upper surface with olive oil and sprinkle over it the prepared, sliced olives. (Note that if you don't have black olives, green will do just as well, though the flavour is a little sourer). Roll the whole thing up as tightly as you can, without making the dough spread too far sideways. You should now have a cylindrical loaf which isn't showing the olives anywhere, except perhaps at the ends. If olives do show, leave them, rather than trying to remove and mess everything up. Place this loaf (carefully!) on a greased and floured baking tray, cover with a damp cloth and leave in that warm spot again for about 45 minutes. In that time it should easily double in size.
By this time you will have heated the oven to 400 degrees F (210 C or Gas Mark 5). With a very sharp knife or razor blade, make several diagonal slashes about half an inch (12mm) deep on the top of the loaf. Bake in middle of the oven for 35 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack.
Don't be surprised if the loaf becomes slightly unwound while cooking (both mine did). It may be that it needs for the final seam to be sealed with water before baking, something I'll try next time. But don't worry, the innards will still taste good. Absolutely delicious with soup.
Note: the second time, I used some of my poolish starter, so that 150ml of the sourdough starter replaced 100ml of the water and 75g of flour (making it a total of dry flour 305g and warm water 100ml). It turned out as you see - and tasted slightly different, having that sourdough taste. I did still use the recommended amount of yeast as given, though.
Enjoy your nice newly-baked bread.
