Olive and Thyme Bread

Submitted by StevenHB

"Adapted from a recipe by Amy Scherber. This is one of several that takes 2-3 days to complete. It's totally worth the effort."

 

• Ready In: 48hrs 20mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Yields: 2 loaves

ingredients

• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 1⁄2 cups water (105-115 degrees)
• 3 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour (unbleached)
• 1⁄3 cup all-purpose flour (for kneading)
• 4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1⁄2 cup kalamata olive (pit & chop roughly)
• 4 teaspoons fresh thyme (coarsely chopped)

directions

1. ADDITIONAL INGREDIENT: 1 1/4 cups basic bread sponge (from my basic bread sponge recipe).
2. Can use any fleshy black olive in place of Kalamatas.
3. In a bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water. Allow to proof for three minutes.
4. Stir the sponge into the water, breaking the sponge up using your hands or a spoon.
5. Add 3 1/4 cups of the flour and salt and mix, scraping and folding until the dough gathers into a single mass. Mix in the olives and thyme until distributed. This dough will be wet and sticky.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead as much of the 1/3 cup of flour as is required to make a smooth and elastic dough.
7. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
8. Halve the dough and shape each piece into a ball and place in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic. Allow to rise in a draft-free location for two hours.
9. Turn out each piece of the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and press out any large bubbles. Shape each half into a loose oval. Transfer each of the ovals into a 9x5 loaf pan, with the seam on the bottom. Cover again with plastic and allow to double in bulk, which should take 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
10. Preheat the oven for at least thirty minutes along with a baking stone or tiles on the middle rack to 425. Place a baking pan with decent sides on the bottom shelf. Boil two cups of water. Place the loaf pans on the stones and then immediately pour the boiling water into the baking pan.
11. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the loaves are hollow sounding when removed from the pans and tapped on the bottom. Take the loaves out of the pans and cool on a rack.

Reviews

[mianbao]

This is nice bread! It's like French bread with olives and thyme added. I followed the recipe fairly conscientiously, except for the very last. In the recipe, this bread is baked in loaf pans. However, I have had trouble getting larger loaves of bread cooked through, so I divided the dough into six smaller portions, of about 200 grams each, and baked them directly on flat baking sheets. I was a little concerned that I would get very flat bread because the dough was quite slack. It actually rose better than I had expected. The flavor is good, too. Thank you very much for sharing this recipe with us.