rustic olive stuffed bread

add chopped green olives to this homey bread recipe

"bread", by christine ingram and jennie shapter is one of those cook books i picked up on the sale rack. its the kind of book abounding with beauty shots of breads from around the world. the introduction retraces the history of the subject, providing the fine points about the ingredients and techniques used in a loaf of bread.


sometimes i turn the pages of bread" to inspire me when i'm making our weekly batch of bread dough. this recipe actually gave me the idea for a hostess gift to take to our friends who invited jim and i to dinner.


olives, olive oil, yeast and whole wheat flour comprise the earthy, homey, character of this pretty loaf.

chop green olives to work into the dough of this rustic whole wheat bread.

rustic olive stuffed bread

• 1 cup warm water (112 degrees)

• 1 tbl. sugar & several tbls. of olive oil

• 1/4 ounce active dry yeast

• about 2 cups unbleached white bread flour

• about 1 cup of whole wheat flour

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1/3 cup chopped green olives

1. dissolve yeast in the sugar, olive oil and warm water. let it sit covered with a kitchen towel about 10 min. until frothy.

2. put 1 cup of white flour and all of the whole wheat flour with the salt into a large mixing bowl. make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture.

3. using a fork, incorporate the flour from the outside a little at a time. add as much of the remaining 1 cup of white flour as necessary to form a ball (it will be a little sticky).

4. knead on a floured counter for 8-10 min., adding little sprinkles of flour, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

5. place the dough in a large oiled glass bowl, and rub it with olive oil. cover it with clean kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm spot until double- about an hour.

6. punch down the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured counter. flatten it out a bit and add the olives, and fold them into the dough.

7. shape it into an oval loaf and put it onto a piece of parchment paper that covers a baking sheet.

8. make six deep cuts in the top and push the sections over to the diagonal. push a few more olives into the cuts and brush the whole loaf with olive oil.

9. cover again and let it rise another 45-min. to an hour until double.

10. heat the oven to 400 degrees and bake the bread for 35 - 40 min. until it sounds hollow when thumped. cool it on a wire rack or the stove top.