One of my Blogger friends, Monet of Anecdotes and Apple Cores, had a recipe for Homemade Bread with Olives and Rosemary [1] last week that looked truly delicious. I don’t often make homemade bread, so my skills are a little rusty, but I was willing to give it a shot. After conferring for some advice from Monet on timing for my Kitchen Aid, then receiving a few tweets on timing the dough’s rising, the bread made it to the oven. Off hand, I still really don’t understand the twitter phenomenon. I’ve had an account for at least half a year, but I only use it sporadically. For one thing, I’m fairly certain I’m not going to find Kim Kardashian offering me fascinating culinary or lifestyle advice for that matter. And most of my friends don’t tweet, so who in the world will see my musings or care? In any case, if someone could please explain this phenomenon to me that’d be great. Or if you have a twitter handle and you use it frequently and think you provide interesting content, let me know so I can follow you and figure out what in the heck this is all about.
So back to the olive bread. My reason’s for attempting this bread were three-fold. One, I still have a large quantity of white whole wheat flour on hand just begging to be baked. Two, I’ve had a couple of catering related questions on bread, and I want to hone my skills. And three, SMIL just won a wonderful bottle of olive oil for me (in a huge gift basket) in the Dallas Food and Wine Festival’s silent auction benefiting the Farmers Market. It’s delicious and perfect for dipping. And of course the OLIVES. Unlike my sisters or Monet, I truly believe olives make everything taste better. Happily, I discovered my MIL has a large rosemary bush in her front yard, resulting in my having all the necessary ingredients on hand! I used Nicoise Olives in my bread, which in retrospect the slightly tarter flavor of the Kalamata’s would probably be better – or maybe even green olives! Yum!
Be sure to hop over to Anecdotes and Apple Cores to check out her other super recipes like Cranberry Almond Muffins [2] and Honey Yogurt Whole Wheat Bread [3]!
White Whole Wheat Bread with Nicoise Olives and Rosemary Recipe
(from Anecdotes and Apple Cores [1])
1 tbsp Active Dry yeast
3/4 c. warm water (105-110 degrees F)
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 c. olive oil
2 tbps fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 c. Nicoise olives, chopped
1 c. All-Purpose Flour
3 c. White Whole Wheat Flour
In a bowl, stir to combine yeast and water for approximately 10 minutes. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine sugar, salt, olive oil, rosemary and olives. Use paddle attachment to stir on low, then add yeast mixture and continue stirring with the paddle attachment. Add the flour in small batches at a time until combined, then switch to your dough hook. With mixer on lowest setting, use dough hook to knead dough. Add additional flour to dough as necessary to let dough form a ball and pull away from the sides of the bowl. Knead on low speed for 7 minutes.
Coat a glass bowl with olive oil then move dough from stand mixer to bowl. Rub a teeny bit of olive oil all around the sides of the dough, then cover with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour and a half. Move bowl to a cookie sheet, then form a loaf shape. Cover with a damp towel and let rise for an additional hour. Sprinkle surface with flour and score the top of loaf. Bake in an oven preheated to 400 for 30 minutes. Continue to sing Hot Cross Buns over and over again while you wait for your fresh bread. Dip in olive oil and enjoy!