Kalamata Olive Bread


for the pre-ferment dough:

7 g dry yeast
120 ml warm water
7 g sugar
140 g all purpose flour

for the dough:

pre-ferment dough
270 g water
45 ml cold press olive oil
15 g salt
450 g flour
100 g kalamata olives, pitted, cut


Prepare the pre-ferment dough:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water.
2. In a mixer bowl, scale the flour and sugar.
3. Add the yeast to the bowl and mix with the hook attachment.
4. Cover loosely with plastic foil and set in a warm place to ferment. It is ready when it starts to fall in the centre.

Prepare the dough:

1. Pour some of the water over the pre-ferment.
2. Sift over the flour.
3. Add the rest of the water, olive oil and salt. Mix with the hook attachment for 3-4 min.
4. Cover loosely with cling foil and let it rise for about one and a half hour.
5. Add the olives and knead slightly to combine well. Try not to over-knead so you do not break the olives.
6. Let the dough rise once again for 50 min.


 Tailoring:

1. Divide the dough in two. Knead every part with a bit of flour.
2. Form an oval bread from each part. Cover with cotton cloth and let them rest for 30 min.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 210 C.
4. Bake until the bread is golden and light.
5. Transfer baked loafs on a wire rack to cool.
6. Generously brush them with olive oil, while they are hot.
7. Cut with serrated knife after the bread is completely cool.
8. Serve with olive tapenade and fresh soft cheese.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lebkuchen Houses

Image
Traditions are sculpted by the memories of the people. For some traditions is particularly easy to cross time and geographical borders, because of the taste. The well known gingerbread houses today are the young ancestors of the lebkuchen houses, born in Germany two hundred years ago, when Brothers Grimm wrote "Hansel and Gretel". German bakers were inspired by the descriptive story and freed their imagination into baking differently shaped and coloured small and big delicious houses.  Decorated with candies, small cookies, chocolate pieces and lots of icing, the houses are extremely appealing not only because of their whimsical appearance, but because of the heavenly aroma of the spices as well. Make this in advance and you will have Christmas feeling all season long.  I chose to bake lebkuchen houses because of the variety of spices used in the recipe . My houses are gently decorated with white royal icing and I did not use any candies. I like this way of decor...
Read more

Rustico Buttergipfel

Image
55 g unsalted butter I 225 g unsalted butter II 30 g flour 15 g cold water 7 g dry yeast 20 ml lukewarm water 160 ml col water 14 g malt syrup , or 30 g dark honey 12 g salt 1 large egg 380 g flour My Grandma used to "toast" the butter for almost every pastry - either at the time of preparing or just before serving. It gave just a small "intonation" of difference to the colour but such a complete finish to the taste. At the time I did not care what and why she did that - to me it was just an extra unnecessary work. Later on at the university I realized how the separation works and what a difference it makes to the taste. French call it beurre noisette and use it mostly for pastry and savoury hot sauces, Indians call it ghee and cook mainly with it, in Germany and in the German part of Switzerland, chefs use this "toasty" butter for the buttergipfels .  The process is a simple separation into butterfat and milk solids, called clarificat...
Read more

Old-fashioned Lebkuchen Stars and Hearts

Image
This is the classic recipe for Christmas Cookies from old Germany, or Switzerland (if you'd prefer). A recipe, I was hoping to find for a long time. Thanks to Sara Kelly Iaia and her fine memories, collected in the book "Festive Baking", I am happy to bake the first cookies for this Christmas. The honey and the quantity of the fragrant spices make these cookies unique. I would advise not to skip any of the spices or to change their quantity. I am pretty conservative when it comes to perfumed spices. I think the simpler ingredients make one dish tastier. But here, the spices are in perfect unison.   for the cookies: 490 g all purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 Tbsp cinnamon 1 tsp cardamom 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp powdered anise 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg 1/2 tsp ginger 225 g honey 160 g light brown sugar 134 g unsalted butter 1 large egg 1. Sift the flour in a bowl. 2. In another bowl, sift all...
Read more