Olive Bread

How to prepare olive bread

1. Mix the starter ingredients just until the dough comes together. Leave the dough at room temperature for 1 hour. Cover the dough with oiled plastic wrap that touches the dough and refrigerate overnight (minimum 12 hours).
2. The next day, add the remaining ingredients over the starter and knead until you get an elastic dough. It will be soft and sticky, but keep kneading until it feels elastic (5 minutes in a stand mixer or one cycle in a bread machine).
3. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
4. Knead the dough again, this time until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl (another 5 minutes in a stand mixer or one cycle in a bread machine).
5. At the end, add the finely chopped olives and knead by hand until they are evenly distributed.
6. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it and leave it in a warm spot until doubled in volume (about 1.5 hours).
8. Dust the work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Stretch the dough a bit with your hands and fold it in thirds toward the center, then fold in thirds again from the opposite side.
9. Place the dough back in the oiled bowl and let it rise again (about 1.5 hours).
10. Turn the dough out onto the floured surface again and cut it into 4-5 pieces. Take each piece and twist it as if wringing a towel.
11. Place the loaves on baking trays lined with parchment paper and dusted with a little flour. Put the trays in a plastic bag and let the loaves rise for another hour.
12. Bake the loaves for 30 minutes at 220°C.

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