Usually I love to use some whole grain flour in my bread recipes. This olive bread however is an exception. Its wheat sourdough base let the olives stand out visually as taste wise.
If you are brand new, you might want to check out the bread basics first.
Ingredients
- 500g finely grind wheat flour
- 350g water (70% hydration)
- 75g whole grain wheat levain
- 10g salt
- 100g olives (20%)
Instructions
Choice of Olives
The olives are clearly the feature of this bread, so the choice does matter obviously. Go for those that you really like in taste, don’t go for the cheap stuff.
If your olives are oil pickled, let them rest on several paper towels to drain as much oil as possible from them. The oil usually has a very intense taste which will highly affect the overall taste of your dough. Personally I would avoid the oiled pickled ones for bread making.
If your olives are pickled in salt water they might be too salty for your bread. Wash them before adding them to the dough or let them rest in water during autolyze to reduce the salt content a bit. Letting them sit in water will will affect their taste of course and I would not recommend doing so for most other purposes than baking bread.
Kneading in Olives
If you knead your dough per hand you can add the olives with your levain. If you use a machine do not add them during kneading! They will not survive the process and you will end up with a ton of olive flakes inside your dough. Rather mix the dough and fold them into your dough afterward. I found it easy to add them in portions, a quarter at a time, and do some stretch and folds until they are mixed into the dough.
Other than mixing in the olives I used the day off work sourdough timetable for this loaf. I think a short fermentation will highlight the olives better than a longer developed dough.
As a starter I would suggest this timetable for your first tries.
Tips
This bread should be eaten within two or three days. Due to the olives (especially if you let them rest in water up front) they loaf does contain spots with very high hydration, which might spawn mold after a few days.
