Monday, November 22, 2010

Olive Rosemary Bread

One again, I decided to throw my hat into the ring for another Kitchen Play contest. This time the sponsor was Lindsey Olives. I looked over the menu items and saw that the dessert course was French toast made with bread that included olives.

I decided to forgo making the French toast and just made the bread. Once that's made, of course you can do anything you want with it.

I'm thinking it would be great for turkey sandwiches, if it lasts that long. Or it would be pretty in the Thanksgiving bread basket. Or toasted and used as the base for an olive tapenade.

Of course, I added my own little twists to the original bread recipe. I decreased the recipe to make just one loaf, and I fiddled with a few of the other original ingredients, adding semolina flour and using bread flour instead of the all purpose and whole wheat flours.

For the olives, I used regular black olives instead of the kalamatas, and I used the sliced rather than chopped. The stand mixer beat them up a little bit more, but it left large, dramatic chunks. It's a pretty loaf of bread, with a light golden crust.

Olive Rosemary Bread

1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) instant yeast
1/2 cup semolina
2 cups (9 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon cracked dried rosemary
1 /2 cup sliced Lindsay black olives, drained
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine water, yeast, and semolina and set aside until it's bubbly, about 10 minutes.

Add the bread flour and rosemary and knead with the dough hook until the dough is smooth and elastic. The dough might seem a little bit dry, but the olives will add more moisture, so there's no need to worry.

Add the salt, olive oil, and olive, and knead until the olive oil is incorporated and the olives are well distributed in the dough.

Form the dough into a ball drizzle with a bit of olive oil, and return it to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until doubled, about 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and sprinkle some cornmeal on a baking sheet.

When the dough has doubled, flour your work surface lightly and turn out the dough. Knead briefly, then form the dough into your preferred shape. Place it on the prepared baking sheet, seam-side down. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Slash the loaf as desired and bake until golden, about 45 minutes. Cool completely on a rack before slicing.

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1 comment:

Casey said...

Donna,

Your version of this bread looks delicious. It's a great lesson that, even in baking, you can experiment and swap out ingredients with great results. Thanks for playing along with Kitchen Play!

Best,
Casey

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