Olive Bread: Rose's Bread Bible Bakers
Sunday, January 22, 2017 at 2:35PM
Olive bread 'The Bread Bible'
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I love an olive baguette, stands to reason I was looking forward to baking Rose's olive bread.
Started with making a 'biga' (an Italian pre-ferment), it's easy, combine flour, a little instant yeast, a tad of optional malt powder with room temperature water. 
Stirred until smooth and it comes away from the side of the bowl.
Placed in an oiled two cup container and covered for six hours, it's ready to use at this point or pop in fridge for up to three days. Mine was refrigerated for two days. 
Ready for the mixer now (instructions are also included for hand and food processor mixing in 'The Bread Bible'). Flour, more yeast, biga are mixed together with water until a rough dough forms. 
Rough dough mixed
After a short covered rest, salt is added and the dough is returned to the mixer to be kneaded until smooth.
Dough is covered and given a short time to relax before the olives are added.
chopped kalamata olives mixed with a little flour
Dough is allowed to rise now until doubled in size. Shaped in a banneton or colander lined with a tea towel... and this the stage there is a slight hiccup, ok LARGE hiccup.
I go to preheat the oven and the electrics were out, I could light the gas with a match but I can't run the oven without the fan.
I stayed calm... ha ha no I didn't I had tears running down my face despite self talking to myself to "toughen up". I went and punched down the partially risen shaped loaf and froze the dough.
Oh the fuse box!! Apparently you are supposed the check the fuse box outside, which I did the next day. Even though the switch marked oven was on there was a random unmarked switch down... yep, oven back on YAY!
Soooo, I defrosted the dough and baked it off in a batard (torpedo) loaf shape because it was faster.
Hmmm, I thought the dough didn't look right defrosted and reshaped, though apart from not getting as much crust as I expect I would have gotten without freezing... all was good, delicious in fact. Well flavoured, moist, light but with just enough bite in the texture.
Now the tomatoes... Nanna loved a grilled tomato and always made me grilled tomatoes on toast for breakfast, I liked them but like fresh too so I went a bit "Ottolenghi" and caramelised half the tomatoes in a pan, keeping the other half raw. Mixed together they top my olive toast. With a lemon olive dressing, baby basil and rough cut herbs, the best ever Sunday brunch on a hot summers day.
Happy Baking :)
Today has been one of the 'Rose's Bread Bible Bakers' bakes where a group of fabulous bakers get together and bake from the pages of 'The Bread Bible'.
The Bread Bible
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Reader Comments (7)
Brava! the bread looks absolutely wonderful. freezing dough without adding extra yeast (but how could you have known) just means it will take longer to rise as some of the yeast cells die. i'm so glad you persevered.
Ahhh I didn't know some of the yeast cells would die. Thank you so much for the information, I'm learning so much about bread baking. Every night I reach for a novel when I go to bed, but lately I always end up reading 'The Bread Bible'.
Gorgeous!!! Oh I can just taste it with the grilled tomatoes and lemon olive oil/basil/lherb dressing. Sounds fantastic! If I forget and turn on the oven, the stove with either an electric frying pan and turn on the microwave, the fuse box blows out half the house!
Thank you Vicki. I didn't know the fuse thing could happen… ha but learnt now :) I love summer for the fresh produce… and what better to pair it with than freshly baked bread.
So glad it worked out after the.oven trauma. I see you used the.optional.malt. What difference.do.you think.it.makes?
Jeniffer, my heart broke a little, thinking of all your hard work , when I read that there was also a steam of tears....but what beautiful results and an excellent post as always. Hugs, kleenex and Happy Baking!
Catherine … the optional malt, adds in tiny touch of maltiness… I had a tin but I wouldn't have bought a tin just for the recipe.
Thank you Tony, happy it all worked out in the end :)