Olive Bread

This is one of my recipes that dates back to my days in South Africa - where I met my boyfriend. He introduced me to olive bread and it has quickly become one of my favorite things to bake. It is not labour intensive as such, but it does take a bit of prep time - but don't worry, most of it is time where it needs to rise, - so you are free to do other things!

Here's the recipe

50 g yeast/1 packet dry yeast
300 ml water
50 ml olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 tsp rosemary (or to taste)
500 g flour
1 jar olives - app. 180 g drained,
cut into smaller pieces

Dissolve the yeast in the water (or mix it in the flour if you are using dry yeast). Add oil, salt, rosemary and flour and mix well. Turn dough on to a table drizzled with a bit of olive oil and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. It will be very sticky at first, but don't worry - as you keep kneading it will come together. Put the dough in a bowl and let rise for 1 - 2 hours - till app. double in size. 

Turn dough on to a table and put the olives on top of it. Gently fold the dough around the olives and start kneading. It will take some time to get all of the olives incorporated into the dough - and it might seem impossible at first - but it will happen - just keep kneading :) When that is done, let the dough rise for another 30 min.

Shape the dough to the desired length and place on a baking tray. Let it rise for 30 min. Then baste the bread with water and sprinkle with coarse salt and rosemary. Bake at 220 degrees celcius till the bread is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. 

Enjoy!