I have recently started (yet another) bucket list with a list of things that I want to try cooking. I realized that I’ve never ever made bread from scratch. I’ve tried the pre-mixed flour recipes for the bread machine with mixed results, but never from scratch. This was a classic case of following the instructions from a recipe book where both the ingredient portions as well as what to expect along the way were off. Maybe it was the yeast that I used, but I was much happier with the end result than the intermediate ones! I supposed that’s what really counts. 🙂

Olive Bread Recipe

I found this Olive Bread Recipe in Cooking For a Health Family book that I found in our pantry. Have no idea when we got this, but as I was flipping through the pages, the Olive Bread Recipe stood out. It was all vegan and looked like something even I could make. Here’s the ingredient list. Not the one from the book, but what worked for me.

• 3 cups unbleached wheat flour
• 1 heaped tsp fine sea salt
• ½ tsp bread machine yeast
• 1 ½ cups warm water
• ½ tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsbp extra-virgin olive oil
• 10 black olives, pitted and diced
• 3 garlic gloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp powdered thyme
• 3 tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling

Even though the recipe called for active dry yeast, the local store didn’t have it and I ended up buying bread machine yeast. This could explain some of the irregularities I was seeing. Put the flour in a large bowl and mix in the sea salt, the yeast and the oil along with warm water. Knead until the dough is soft and elastic, but a little on the sticky side. Place in a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let sit for 30 to 45 minutes. At this point the dough was supposed to double in bulk, but I didn’t notice any difference. Remove the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.

Knead in the olives and the other ingredients and shape the dough into a ball. Place the dough on a pizza stone (or a baking sheet) and spread it out with your fingers to form a ½ inch thick round about 10 inches in diameter. Brush the surface with water, let sit for another 15 minutes and then bake in the oven at 425°F for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, drizzle with the extra-virgin olive oil and serve warm. Overall, I’d say my first attempt at bread making was a success. The bread was soft and moist and it did fluff up in the oven. Just not sure about the doubling in size bit that I read in the original recipe.

How do you make olive bread? Have you tried it with active dry yeast?

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