Recipe of the week: Olive Artisan Bread

I’ve been really busy lately, preparing my 20^th birthday cakes (I made two yes :P) … So I didn’y have time to prepare a real post to you my dear readers… But I will share with you one of my favorite bread recipes…I tried it and added a little twist to the traditional bread recipe...

 

Ingredients:

 

-          3 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour, plus more for dusting

-          1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

-          1 1/4 teaspoon salt

-          1 1/2 cups water and more to get sticky dough

-          1 1/2 cups chopped olives

Directions:

 

-          In a large bowl combine flour, yeast, salt, and chocolate.  Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir with a wooden spoon until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap.  Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably 18, at room temperature.

-          Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.  Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

-          Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.  Generously coat a flour sack towel with flour, put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour.  Fold towel over and let rise for about 2 hours.  When it is ready, dough will be more than doubled in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

-           At least half an hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees.  Put a 6 to 8 quart heavy covered pot in oven as it heats.  When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven.  Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but don't worry.  Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.  Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 10-15 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a cooling rack.

 

Enjoy!

P.S: This recipe can vary endlessly! You can replace the olives by cheese or ham cubes, or even try a sweet version by replacing olives with chocolate chunks or chocolate chips.

Enjoy!

                                                                                                                        -Xoxo,

                                                                                                                            T

Recipe adapted from “Chocolate Chunk Artisan Bread” in Breanna’s Recipe Box published on Wednesday September 26, 2012; retrieved from the World Wide Web: http://breannasrecipebox.blogspot.com/2012/09/chocolate-chunk-artisan-bread.html?showComment=1391440142420#c6856311078340011814