Olive bread made from recently captured wild yeast, following a recipe in Piano Piano Pieno by Susan McKenna Grant
Our favourites are Moroccan style black oil-cured olives. Often in stews, we leave them whole but because the pits would be treacherous in bread, I pitted the olives.
Just before shaping the bread, scatter the olives over the risen dough.
Close up of dough with olives
Shape into rounds. Only one of these loaves has olives in it. Because my slashing technique leaves a LOT to be desired, I have started placing cookie cutters on top of the rising loaves. Not only do they etch a design into the loaf, but they also help keep the protective covering (damp clean tea towel or plastic) away from the dough so it is easier to remove when the bread has risen.
Allow the baked bread to continue its internal cooking by letting it cool completely on a wire rack. (If you prefer warm bread, reheat it just before serving.)
Sliced and placed in a basket for serving.
Serve olive bread with or without good quality olive oil for dipping. We blundered onto Emma olive oil at the supermarket. It was on sale for $6.00 a liter! It's a major steal; the olive oil is wonderfully fruity and slightly spicy. (Unsalted butter is good on the bread too....)
(See photos of this bread without olives)
We served the bread with barbecued chicken (with a simple dried herb, salt, pepper and garlic powder dry rub), rapini and green beans with caramelized garlic and fresh herbs from the garden - basil, thyme, oregano (hot!!) and arugula (also hot!!!)
