Grandma brought over an old Italian recipe for her sauce. The finest spaghetti sauce I have ever eaten is made using pork neck bones and other unusual ingredients. The moment you take your first mouthful, the drawn-out procedure is worth your trouble.
| Servings: | 15 |
| Yield: | 1 – round loaf |
Ingredients
- 3 cups bread flour
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped black olives
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 ¼ cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- 1 tablespoon cornmeal
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, yeast, sugar, salt, black olives, olive oil, and water.
- Turn out dough onto a floured board. Knead until smooth and elastic, 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside, and let rise about 45 minutes, until it doubles in size. Punch down. Knead well again, for about 5 to 10 minutes. Let rise for about 30 minutes, until it doubles in size.
- Round the dough on kneading board. Place upside down in a bowl lined with a lint-free, well floured towel. Let rise until double in size.
- While the bread is rising for the third time, put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).
- Gently turn loaf out onto a sheet pan that has been lightly oiled and dusted with cornmeal.
- Bake loaf at 500 degrees F (260 degrees C) for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake for 30 more minutes, or until done.
Reviews
I’m still very much an amateur at baking and have had some successes and many failures. But this recipe came out so good I could believe what I had made. It had the perfect elasticity, but wasn’t rubbery, could be thoroughly kneaded without coming apart and made the best olive bread I have had so far!
I like the texture and taste of this bread. I added rosemary and really like that addition. The loaf got too done on top so 500 is too high for my oven. I never thought it would mix well since everything is put in a bowl and mixed, not just the liquid and yeast, but voila! I put the dough in a container to bake to keep its shape and I like the finished product. Really nice dipped in olive oil!
Excellente..I only added some sun dried tomatoes and a Lil Rosemary
This bread is delicious! I had to add a little extra flour because the dough was really wet but it was easy to make. I also added rosemary for extra flavor and that was the best decision ever! And DON’T bake at 500, I did it at 450 and it turned out great. Will definitely be making this recipe again!
I didn’t bake at 500deg. I just baked @ 375 for 45 minutes. Came out really nice And I only did two risings
I added a tbs of dried Rosemary, delicious
This is a fantastic bread. I have made this. A few times and agree with the modified oven temp to 475. Other than that I have taken to proofing in the instapot on the yogurt setting for all 3 rises. Works perfectly in half to two thirds the time. This is a family favorite!
I used kalamata olives and it was amazing! The best bread I’ve ever had!
I love the simplicity of this recipe! Nothing confusing. All done by hand. Didn’t have to pull out my mixer! Beautiful finished product!!!
Absolutely it was a great recipe but followed other reviewer on setting the temperature first at F 475, it worked very well. I’ve added chia seeds to the doe, the taste was marvelous. Thanks for sharing a great recipe
Terrible. If you’re used to good European bread this recipe will not make that… instead think of yeasted wonderbread with black olives.
Delicious
I used the 450/375 F combination for baking. First temperature 15 min followed by 35 min at the lower temperature. This is the second time I made it and more successful than my first attempt. I wanted to highlight how important it is to use a fresh pack of yeast. In my first attempt, I did not notice that the yeast packet’s expiry date was more than six months old. The bread’s texture was not at all soft inside. I already felt something suspicious when the dough did not rise. But when I got a fresh packet of yeast from the store and tried again, sure enough the dough happily doubled in 20 to 30 min. All was well after that !
Excellent house bread to have around and dip in olive oil as chefs/family kitchenn snack. You can increase the olive flavor by substituting half of the water with olive brine from the jar, for kitchen snack bread I roll these into smaller stick loaves about an inch wide before final rise to make personal loaves at the dinner table. You can also !ale this the night before and out dough in ziplock freezer bag, or just freeze for later. Be sure to spray inside of bag with oil spray so as not to stick inside bag. The ziplock bag will stop most of the rising if you remove the air..-143!
Great texture with Kalamatas very mild flavor. However 500 degrees we got black bread.
I used my own homemade garlic paste from 12 garlic cloves and also Kalamata olives and I have to say, it’s the best bread I’ve ever made for myself in the 35 years I’ve been baking. Hummy is putting it lightly!! This is off the charts delicious!
Put the oven on 450 instead of 500, double the chopped olives, and bake for longer than 30 minutes in the final bake.
I knew it sounded too high 500 degrees i should have listened to my gut, luckily i checked 10 minutes in, the top got very dark almost burned, i turned it down to 450, then to 360 to help it cook without further growing, too late, So my advice would be, DO NOT DO THE 500 BIT, maybe try 425.
Fantastic recipe!! Made this bread multiple times. Also added chopped pecans to the olive bread and it was awesome. Have made it with and without the olives and it turned out great every time. I made foot long Subway like bread by leaving out the olives and garlic. Added some dried oregano and dill leaves instead. Also used this sandwich version to make Pizza base. Turned out great. Another variation was to make raisin and pecan bread by leaving out all the savory ingredients and herbs. Similarly used this version to make dinner rolls with all kinds of stuffings, e.g. potatoes and chicken, ham and cheese, spicy chicken, etc Such an easy to work with recipe, I found oiling my hand and kneading the dough made it easier to work with. Will continue to play around with this recipe and will be using it for a long time. Thank you for this recipe!
Easy and delicious! Like other reviewers I lower the temp to 450/375 and added more olives (the needed changes lower the rating one star). I love olives so I splurged on a nice mixture of olives from the olive bar at our local supermarket. It was worth it due to the rich olive taste. I am looking forward to playing with different spices for the next loaf. Thank you for this recipe.
I added fresh oregano, Kalamata olives, and some sun dried tomato pesto. It was AMAZING. I was a little worried because of how sticky the dough was, but it turned out great. Also, I lowered the temperature to 400 and 350, like many others mentioned.