with Rick Flaste | My Bread | W.W. Norton, 2009 | Makes one 10-inch round loaf
When I first opened Sullivan Street Bakery, with Roman baking in mind, this slightly pungent olive bread immediately became my signature loaf.
For this no-knead olive bread recipe, any pitted olive will yield something worth eating. (You don’t want to go to the trouble of pitting them yourself, because it is tedious and the results will not be as neat.) But what I turn to most often are pitted kalamata olives soaked in a pure salt brine—nothing else, just salt. A commonly available kalamata that I’m very fond of is made by Divina and can be found at many supermarkets and gourmet stores. You might think that because they’re black they will change the color of the bread, but they won’t, unless you carelessly dump some of the brine into the dough. Green Sicilian colossals, sometimes called “giant” olives, packed in pure salt brine, are another good option; they’re often available at Italian food stores. As a result of the brine the olives release during baking, this recipe calls for no salt.—Jim Lahey
LC Olive Loaf Objective Note: We wanted to know exactly what we were getting ourselves into with this no-knead bread. So we looked up what the famed breadmaker Jim Lahey had to say about it on the Sullivan Street Bakery website. “A golden brown crust and an open, airy crumb with large pieces of green olive. Slightly sour with an intense olive flavor.” We have to say, we weren’t dissuaded. We’re ogling this as a conversation-starting nosh with wine prior to a dinner party, as an idyllic accompaniment to cheese plates, or as just an all-around pass-it-at-the-table-and-grab-a-hunk type of bread. We’re also hoping for leftovers, seeing as we think they’d be inspired in grilled cheese, as a base for bruschetta, even as croutons. olive bread recipe
Active time: 15 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes, not including rising.
No-Knead Olive Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups bread flour
- About 1 1/2 cups roughly chopped pitted olives
- 3/4 teaspoon instant or other active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cups cool (55 to 65°F) water
- Wheat bran, cornmeal, or additional flour for dusting
Directions
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1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, chopped olives, and yeast. Add the water and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until you have a wet, sticky dough, about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size, 12 to 18 hours.
2. When the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface with flour. Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Using lightly floured hands or a bowl scraper or spatula, lift the edges of the dough in toward the center. Nudge and tuck in the edges of the dough to make it round.
3. Place a tea towel on your work surface and generously dust it with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour. Gently place the dough on the towel, seam side down. If the dough is tacky, dust the top lightly with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour. Fold the ends of the tea towel loosely over the dough to cover it and place it in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 1 to 2 hours. The dough is ready when it is almost doubled. If you gently poke it with your finger, it should hold the impression. If it springs back, let it rise for another 15 minutes.
4. Half an hour before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 475°F (245°C), with a rack in the lower third. Place a covered 4 1/2-to-5 1/2-quart heavy pot in the center of the rack.
5. Using pot holders, carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven and uncover it. Unfold the tea towel and quickly but gently invert the dough into the pot, seam side up. (Use caution—the pot will be very, very hot). Recover the pot and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and continue baking until the olive bread is a deep chestnut color but not burnt, 15 to 30 minutes more. Use a heatproof spatula or pot holders to gently lift the bread from the pot and place it on a wire rack to cool thoroughly before slicing.
- Herb and Olive Oil Focaccia from Jane’s Sweets
- Rosemary Olive Bread from Sustainable Pantry
- No-Knead Small Baguette from Leite’s Culinaria
- Spotted Dog from Leite’s Culinaria
No-knead olive bread recipe © 2009 Jim Lahey. Photo © 2009 Squire Fox. All rights reserved.
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[Emily Olson] This is an easy-to-make bread with simple ingredients that doesn’t require a lot of expertise to put together. I liked that I could assemble the dough and let it rise overnight and during the day. It also freezes well.
[Sue Epstein] I am an experienced bread baker and used to teach bread-making. Olive bread has become an artisan bakery classic and while I cannot say that this bread was fabulous or the best tasting olive bread I’ve had, it was so fool-proof, simple to make, delicious, that I will definitely make again and again. It’s an especially good recipe for a neophyte to breakmaking. It had an excellent crust and crumb structure. The recipe calls for baking it 30 minutes covered and then 15-30 minutes uncovered until it’s a deep chestnut color. When I uncovered it after the initial 30 minutes and tested it with an instant-read thermometer, it had already reached 190 degrees (when bread is fully done), Therefore I would suggest checking it after about 20 minutes. Warm bread with butter and a good cup of coffee – what could be better?
I tried this bread but the dough didn’t rise. What did I do wrong?
Thanks.
Besides the yeast, the other problem could be not letting it rise long enough or letting it rise too long so that it falls again. Let the dough rise until doubled in size; it may take more or less time than the recipe states (12 to 18 hours), depending on environmental factors. Let the dough tell you when it’s ready, not the clock. I find a container with tall see-through vertical sides, like a large Tupperware-type container, makes it easier to measure the volume of rising dough. I hope this helps and that you try this recipe again, it’s a good one!
Patty, usually when that happens it’s your yeast. Was it out of date? Was the water you used too hot? Did you let it rise long enough? If you still have some of the yeast place a teaspoon of it in a glass with a pinch of sugar and a pinch of flour and warm water (the temperature you’d use for a baby’s bottle). After several minutes it should start bubbling. If it doesn’t your yeast is no good. I’ve made this recipe several times and it always comes out good.
Hi Patty. If your bread did not rise, it could be a problem with your yeast. First, always make sure the yeast has not expired. Second, many times we use water that’s too warm, and we literally kill the yeast. For future breadmaking sessions, you can always use an instant read thermometer to test the water temperature. Do try the bread again, I believe you will have success. Good luck!
Thanks, everyone! I will definitely try it again. It does look great.
I’ve got it down now! This stuff is great.
By the way, now I am making this bread all the time. With respect to unpitted olives, the way to pit your olives very quickly is to hit them with the bottom of a glass. Then just remove the pits. Oftentimes, it is much cheaper to buy unpitted olives rather than pitted ones, and really the pitting process is simple.
Cheers.
Patty
Patty, superb idea, thanks.