A beautiful outer crust and chewy on the inside, you’re going to love this Rosemary Olive Bread. This is a recipe we made practically daily in Culinary School, this tender fluffy bread made salty with olives is one you’ll want to make over and over again.
There’s certainly something extremely satisfying about creating a loaf of bread in your own kitchen. So satisfying, it becomes addictive.
And that’s what’s happened to me. I’ve been on somewhat of a homemade bread making bender. This Rosemary Olive Bread Recipe has me hooked.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Bread Flour: Bread flour has higher protein content than All-purpose flour, which gives bread more structure and chew.
- Kosher Salt: Is favored by chefs for it’s pure salty flavor.
- Whole Wheat Flour
- Rosemary: dried or fresh.
- Olives: Green or Kalamata work well here, or a combo of both.
- Yeast: Dry active yeast.
Pro Tip: When substituting dried herbs for fresh, a good rule of thumb is 1 Tablespoon of fresh herbs = 1 teaspoon dried herbs. Some herbs season better when used in dried form. Oregano is a good example.
Ingredient Substitutions
- Olives: When making olive bread, use any type of olives you’d like. Experiment and enjoy.
Step by Step Instructions
Blooming yeast: Yeast is alive, and blooming the yeast will tell us that it still has active yeast cells to successfully make bread.
- Step 1: In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Let the yeast start to bubble before proceeding.
- Step 2: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cool water, yeast mixture and flours until just incorporated. The dough should resemble a shaggy mass consistency. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 15 – 30 minutes. (Autolyse).
- Step 3: After resting, switch to a dough hook. Add the salt and knead the dough on low-medium speed until it is soft and smooth. 10 – 12 minutes. Knead in the chopped rosemary and broken olives in the last two minutes of kneading.
- Step 4: Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. About 1 hour. Punch down and allow to rise again until doubled. (45 – 50 minutes)
- Step 5: On a lightly floured surface, gently deflate the dough and divide in half. Shape each portion into a boule bowl or upside down on a sheet pan. Cover and let rise for 30 – 40 minutes or until about doubled.
- Step 6: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Using a serrated knife or razor, cut an “X” on top of the loaf. If using a boule bowl, remove the dough and place on a baking sheet. Bake until loaf is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. About 30 minutes.
Tips for Success
- When blooming yeast, use an instant read thermometer to make sure the temperature of the water isn’t hotter than 110 degrees. Water above that level will kill the yeast and ruin the bread.
- Don’t skip the Autolyse stage. (the resting stage) This allows the gluten to relax and the flour to fully hydrate.
Tips For Making Bread at Home
Just like wine making, making bread is watching and nurturing a living thing to grow. Watching the yeast bloom, seeing the bread rise like magic and smelling the bread baking.
Learning about fermentation and proofing, watching the action happen. Converting starches into sugars… and it’s all actually easier than it seems. There’s nothing like it. It’s messy, it’s rewarding and you feel like an artisan.
I’ve kept the way I approach bread making in my own kitchen as the way I was taught at Culinary School.
- Use quality flours.
- Measure by weight using a digital scale instead of volume (measuring cups).
- Measure everything exactly to the gram. Owning a good quality digital scale is not optional.
Making bread is most certainly a labor of love. And if you need inspiration I urge you to watch Michael Pollan’s Netflix Documentary “Cooked”.
I liked it so much I’ve watched it twice. A four part series, he explores cooking through four natural elements - fire, water, air and earth. The bread baking part of the series is truly inspiring.
Recipe for Rosemary Olive Bread
- This olive bread recipe is one of my favorites of those we learned to make at school. Moist and savory, I could eat the whole loaf.
- This bread recipe goes through two rises. One for an hour and one for 45 minutes. One of the least complicated recipes I’ve tried so far.
- I use both Kalamata and Castelvetrano olives for this recipe. Any combination of olives will work. The original recipe calls for Kalamata olives only and the title in my culinary school binder reads Rosemary Kalamata Olive Bread Recipe.
Serving Tip
- Serve this bread with a small shallow bowl of good quality olive oil for dipping. = divine.
- Or simply slather with butter and enjoy.
More Homemade Bread Recipes
And don’t miss this Cornbread Recipe with Creamed Corn. It’s the most popular recipe on my site.
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Homemade Rosemary Olive Bread
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Dry Active Yeast .3 ounces
- ½ cup Warm water 4 ounces, 110 degrees
- 2 cups Cool water 16 ounces
- 5 cups Bread flour 22 ½ ounces, Plus more for dusting
- 1 cup Whole wheat flour 4 ½ ounces
- 1 Tablespoon Salt ½ ounce
- 2-3 Tablespoons Fresh Rosemary 1 – 1 ½ ounce chopped
- 1 ¼ Cups Kalamata Olives and Green Olives 6 ½ ounces, pitted, broken, rinsed and squeezed
Instructions
- In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cool water, yeast mixture and flours until just incorporated. The dough should resemble a shaggy mass consistency. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 15 – 30 minutes. (Autolyse)
- After resting, switch to a dough hook. Add the salt and knead the dough on low-medium speed until it is soft and smooth. 10 – 12 minutes.
- Knead in the chopped rosemary and broken olives in the last two minutes of kneading.
- Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. About 1 hour. Punch down and allow to rise again until doubled. (45 – 50 minutes)
- On a lightly floured surface, gently deflate the dough and divide in half. Shape each portion int o a boule. Place upside down on a sheet pan. Cover and let rise for 30 – 40 minutes or until about doubled.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- With a serrated knife or razor, cut an “X” on top of the loaf. Bake until loaf is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. About 30 minutes.
Notes
-
- When blooming yeast, use an instant read thermometer to make sure the temperature of the water isn’t hotter than 110 degrees. Water above that level will kill the yeast and ruin the bread.
-
- Don’t skip the Autolyse stage. (the resting stage) This allows the gluten to relax and the flour to fully hydrate.
- Serve this bread with a small shallow bowl of good quality olive oil for dipping. = divine.
- Or simply slather with butter and enjoy.
Nutrition
Olive Bread … Such A Treat
Why Trust My Recipes? I am a Culinary School Graduate and a lifelong student of home cooking. I hope to inspire you try to cook as often as you can. I’ve been cooking for 50 years, and my recipes are tried and true tested and tested and then tested again before published. To read more take a look at my About Page.
I halved the recipe for one loaf and it was perfect. Added 2 garlic cloves when adding rosemary and olives. Also used 3 cups bread flour as I did not have whole wheat. Delicious, thank you!
Fabulous and thanks for letting me know. Garlic seems like a natural here. I should add it to the recipe as a permanent addition.
I’ve made bread and given it away to coworkers, friends, and family for years. This is the most requested and loved bread I make. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Wonderful! This is a bread recipe that we made almost daily in Culinary School. So glad you like it and those co-workers are most certainly lucky to have you in their lives. Thanks for taking the time to write a review.
I love this bread and have made it numerous times. My one issue is that it’s very sticky and doesn’t seem to want to shape into a boule,
I think I found my issue. I always go by 120 grams to a cup of flour. You have 5 cups as 22.5 ounces, which would be 638 grams. So I’m off by 38 grams. Not sure if that would do it?
I’ll up my flour next time and see.
I normally try to set a loaf aside to give to neighbors but my family will often tear through both!
I agree, sticky bread can be very difficult to manage. Adding a little more flour always seems to do the trick. Let me know how the next batch turns out. Thanks for your note Kristen.
Directions were clear and accurate, and the results were delicious!
Love to try making this. However, while your post says “That approach being using quality flours and measuring by weight instead of volume. Everything is measured to the gram.”, your recipe uses volume measurements. Do you have the weights for this recipe? Thanks!
Well that was rather silly of my. I’ve added the ounces to the recipe.
I hope you enjoy this bread. We made it often at Culinary School and it was one of everyone’s favorites. I hope you come back and leave a review.
Can quick rise yeast be used
Hi Tena. I don’t use quick rise, so can’t answer this question with confidence. I’m assuming it will just decrease the rise time for a quicker turn around? Let me know if you try it.
you didnt make enough that would be all mine… lol I love this bread and yours looks sensational!
We use our digital scale ALL THE TIME! Heck, we even use it to weight our coffee water (600 grams of water to 37 grams of coffee in a French press). Anyway, love homemade bread. And rosemary combined with olives? Wonderful combo! This looks terrific — thanks.
Congrats on jumping into bread making and this effort looks outstanding. We live olive bread and I will pass this on to the family baker (frozen biscuits is my speed) for her to try.