Rosemary Olive Bread. A beautiful outer crust and chewy on the inside. This is a recipe we made practically daily in Culinary School, a Rosemary bread recipe made salty with olives is one you’ll want to make over and over again.
I’ve been on somewhat of a homemade bread making bender.
If you’ve been following along with my blog at all for the past nine years, you will have noticed, you’ll find my mom’s Banana Nut Bread, but there’s never been a homemade yeast bread recipe posted and you’re probably very surprised about this development.
This Rosemary Bread Recipe has me hooked.
And I’ve more than once stated my “dough-a-phobic” condition. Culinary School has changed all of that. Spending plenty of time in the Pastry Kitchen with one of the best Pastry Chef’s in Denver, Jenna Dilullo is a guarantee for success.
That is if you have the will. And I do.
There’s certainly something extremely satisfying about creating a loaf of bread in your own kitchen. So satisfying, it becomes addictive.
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.
That approach being using quality flours and measuring by weight instead of volume. Everything is measured 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 really good.
Bread Making as a Hobby
When you first started making loaves of bread didn’t you feel like it was the beginning of a hobby? Especially when you realize there are all types of flours available to tinker with.
I haven’t even scratched the surface with experimenting. The most exotic being 00 flour for pizza dough. I’d love for you to leave a comment about your favorite bread to make and favorite flour to work with.
Recipe for Rosemary Olive Bread
- This rosemary 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 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’ve been making a Buttermilk Bread recipe, which I’ll write about soon. It has three long rises, that keeps you house bound for most of the day. The result if sublime, however.
- 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.
Culinary School Tip: Serve this bread with a small shallow bowl of good quality olive oil for dipping. = divine.
I hope you give this rosemary olive bread a try and if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating a leave a message about your experience with the recipe.
And if you have a favorite homemade rosemary bread recipe, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
More Homemade Bread Recipes
Homemade Rosemary Olive Bread
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Dry Active Yeast .3 ounces
- 1/2 cup Warm water 4 ounces, 110 degrees
- 2 cups Cool water 16 ounces
- 5 cups Bread flour 22 1/2 ounces, Plus more for dusting
- 1 cup Whole wheat flour 4 1/2 ounces
- 1 Tablespoon Salt 1/2 ounce
- 2-3 Tablespoons Fresh Rosemary 1 – 1 1/2 ounce chopped
- 1 1/4 Cups Kalamata Olives and Green Olives 6 1/2 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. 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.
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.