Homemade Rosemary Olive Bread

Homemade Rosemary Olive Bread. A beautiful outer crust and chewy on the inside. This is a recipe for Rosemary olive bread made salty with olives and beautifully flavored with Rosemary. One of our favorite homemade bread recipes.

I Thought I’d Never be Able to Say …

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. 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.

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.

Let’s talk about this Recipe for Rosemary Olive Bread

• This 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.

I hope you give this one a try.

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Homemade Rosemary Olive Bread

Rosemary Olive Bread. A beautiful outer crust and chewy on the inside. Salty with olives and beautifully flavored with Rosemary. One of our favorite homemade bread recipes.

Course: Bread

Cuisine: Meditteranean

Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon Dry Active Yeast
• 1/2 cup Warm water 110 degrees
• 2 cups Cool water
• 5 cups Bread flour Plus more for dusting
• 1 cup Whole wheat flour
• 1 Tablespoon Salt
• 2-3 Tablespoons Fresh Rosemary chopped
• 1 1/4 Cups Kalamata Olives and Green Olives pitted, broken, rinsed and squeezed

Instructions

1. In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. 

2. 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)

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. 

4. Knead in the chopped rosemary and broken olives in the last two minutes of kneading. 

5. 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)

6. 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.

7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 

8. 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.