Authentic Olive-Rosemary Bread - Cook's Illustrated
"Published in Cook's Illustrated, March-April 2007. Almost any variety of brined or oil-cured olive works in this recipe. However, Cook's Illustrated testers preferred a mix of both green and black olives. The bread will keep for up to 2 days, well wrapped and stored at room temperature. To recrisp the crust, place the bread in a 450°F oven for 5-10 minutes. The bread will keep froze for several months when wrapped in foil and placed in a large zipper-lock bag."
- Ready In:
- 4hrs 40mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Yields:
-
2 loaves
- Serves:
- 12
ingredients
- 1 3⁄4 cups water, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons fast rise yeast or 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 1⁄2 cups bread flour (plus extra as needed for dough and counter)
- 1⁄2 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 1⁄2 cups pitted olives (rinsed, chopped rough, and patted dry)
directions
- Whisk water, yeast, and honey in bowl of standing mixer. Add flours and mix on low speed with dough hook until cohesive dough is formed, about 3 minutes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
- Remove plastic wrap; make well in center of dough and add salt and rosemary. Knead dough on low speed for 5 minutes. Increase speed to medium and continue to knead until dough is smooth and slightly tacky, about 1 minute. If dough is very sticky, add 1-2 tablespoons flour and continue mixing for 1 minutes. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter and pat into 12x6-inch rectangle.
- Press olives into dough. Starting at long side, roll rectangle into tight log. With seam side facing up, roll log into coil. Transfer dough, spiral side up, to oiled container or bowl, at least 2 quarts in volume, and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm, draft-free location until it increases in size by 50 percent, about 1 hour.
- Fold partially risen dough over itself. Turn bowl 90 degrees; fold again. Turn bowl again; fold once more. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes.
- Repeat folding, replace plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 30 more minutes.
- Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface, being careful not to deflate. Divide dough in half, loosely shape each piece into ball, and let rise 15 minutes. Flip each ball over and, starting from top, roll into tight oval shape. Using palms, roll each oval from center outward until 12-inch loaf is formed. Poke any olives that fall off into bottom seam, then pinch seam closed.
- Transfer each loaf, seam side down, to 12x6-inch piece of parchment and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, 1-1 1/2 hours (dough is ready when it springs back slowly when pressed lightly with finger.).
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; place baking stone on rack, and heat oven to 450°F at least 30 minutes before baking.
- Slide parchment sheets with loaves onto peal or back of inverted baking sheet. Starting and stopping about 1 inch from each side, use razor blade or sharp knife to cut three 1/2-inch deep slashes on diagonal along top of each fully risen loaf. Use a spray bottle filled with water to spray loaves lightly with water. Carefully slide parchment with loaves into oven using jerking motion.
- Bake 15 minutes, spraying loaves with water twice more in the first 5 minutes, and then reduce oven temperature to 375°F Continue to bake until bread is deep golden brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loaf registers 210°F, 25-30 minutes. Transfer to wire rack, discard parchment, and cool loaves to room temperature, about 2 hours.
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Reviews
-
Used ABM (sorry! LOL) on raisin cycle & addded quartered pimento stuffed Queen olives & fresh rosemary when the ABM went "Bing!". Added 2T olive oil to the mix as ABM is getting old. Made 1 big long loaf that I let rise until doubled (rose fast) & gave multiple slashes before putting in the oven. Oh - cooked on semolina dusted parchment paper. Forgot to reset the oven so the one loaf I made got 450 degrees for 30 minutes then 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Covered the loaf with a damp towel immediately & the crust softened to chewy perfection! Guess the Queen olives were wet enough so the extra heat just made for perfectly cooked bread - I got lucky. Great recipe, thanks for another keeper swissms! -
Excellent bread! I followed directions to the letter (unusual for me!) and we loved the results. I used fresh rosemary from our plant and a combo of black salt cured and green olives. The bread was done a ittle faster than I anticipated and just a bit darker than I like on the bottom--but I think our oven is starting to run a little hot. We couldn't quite wait the whole two hours for the bread to cool--smelled way too good to wait that long...Thanks, Swissms!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
I love cooking for family and friends. I especially enjoy baking...it is like combining art and science to create something extraordinary.
I am most known for making desserts like Recipe #336060. My pet peeve: when people sign-up to bring dessert to a pot-luck or dinner party and they bring something pre-made from the store. My friends and family now know to always let me bring the dessert. :)
I enjoy traveling and believe that one of the best ways to experience a culture is through food. I have lived in Germany, Spain and Switzerland, and currently live in the US.
My rating system:
5 stars - Excellent! Delicious! Could not be better...will make often.
4 stars - Very good! May tweak slightly.
3 stars - Good base recipe. Will need to tweak.
2 stars - Ok. Will keep looking.
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