Budget Bytes

17 March 2011

olive herb bread

$2.30 recipe / $0.19 serving
It's time for another installment of delicious no-knead bread!

One of my favorite breads to buy fresh from the bakery is olive bread. I'm crazy about olives to begin with so when they're baked into a fresh, crusty loaf of bread I just can't resist! I added some dried herbs for extra oomph and used part whole wheat flour to reduce my guilt (because we all know the entire loaf will be devoured in less than a week).

I used dried thyme but feel free to use whatever herbs (fresh or dried) that sound good to you. If you're not sure what herbs would taste good, eat an olive and then go smell some herbs. Whatever smell mixes well with the taste of the olive in your mouth will probably taste good in the bread. At least that's how I decided which to use.

I dropped by the olive bar to get my olives so that I wouldn't have to buy a whole $6 dollar jar. The cool part is that the kalamata olives that I used were marinated in some sort of oil with red pepper so I got a little spicy kick in my bread. That was a pleasant surprise :)

This recipe takes next to no work but it does need to sit around for a while so make it on a day that you'll be home but busy doing other things.

olive herb bread


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Total Recipe cost: $2.30
Servings Per Recipe: 12
Cost per serving: $0.19 per slice
Prep time: 3 hrs. Cook time: 30 min. Total: 3.5 hrs

INGREDIENTS COST
1 cup whole wheat flour $0.16
2.25 cups bread flour $0.33
1.25 tsp salt $0.05
.75 Tbsp active dry or instant yeast $0.20
1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives $1.48
1 tsp dry thyme $0.05
1.25 cups warm water $0.00
2 Tbsp cornmeal $0.03
TOTAL $2.30


STEP 1: In a large pot or bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flours, yeast, salt, herbs). Stir until everything is evenly combined.

STEP 2: Slice or roughly chop the olives. Add the olives and warm water to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is moistened. If the mixture does not form a cohesive ball of dough (no dry flour left on the bottom of the bowl), add more water 2 Tbsp at a time until there are no more dry bits (see photos below).

STEP 3: Loosely cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature for two hours.

STEP 4: After two hours, sprinkle a little flour on the dough and your hands and form the dough into a smooth ball. Prepare a baking sheet with either parchment paper or foil and a generous sprinkle of cornmeal. Place shaped dough ball on the baking sheet and let rise for 1 to 1.5 hours or until double in size.

STEP 5: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. With a very sharp knife, make a few shallow slashes across the dough from one side to the other. Brush the dough with water and then bake for 30 minutes. Let the bread cool on a wire rack before slicing.

olive herb bread

Step By Step Photos


dry ingredients
Combine all of the dry ingredients (flour, salt, yeas, herbs) in a large pot or bowl. Stir until they're evenly combined.

slice olives
Slice or roughly chop the olives.

add water, olives
Add the olives and warm water to the dry ingredients. Stir until everything is combined and moistened.

too dry
If it looks like this (some dry flour, not in one solid ball of dough) then you need to add more water. Add a little at a time until it all comes together into one piece.

solid dough ball
It should look like this. It's all stuck together in one piece and it has picked up all of the dry flour and bits off of the bottom of the pot. I ended up having to add an extra 1/4 cup of water but did so only 2 Tbsp at a time. The amount of water you will need depends on how dry your flour and air are.

2 hr rise
Loosely cover the dough and let it rest for two hours at room temperature. After two hours it will have expanded and look like the dough in the picture above.

formed loaf
Sprinkle a little flour onto the dough and your hands. Form the dough into a smooth ball. Place the ball on a baking sheet with either parchment paper or foil and a generous sprinkling of corn meal.

last rise
Let the dough rise until it has doubled in size (about 1 to 1.5 hours).

slashed dough
Gently make a few slashes across the top of the dough to allow it to expand during cooking. Brush the loaf with water and then bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

baked olive herb bread
Let the bread cool on a wire rack before slicing.

sliced olive herb bread

This bread made the most amazing sandwich with eggplant caponata, a fried egg, feta and mozzarella. I was in heaven.

...of course it's not so bad with just a slather of butter either. ;)

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8 Comments:

  • At March 18, 2011 at 12:10 PM , Blogger Rachel said...

    that looks amazing, and so easy! I've always been afraid of bread, but this looks like something I can handle :)

     
  • At March 19, 2011 at 2:51 PM , Blogger G. said...

    Oh I cannot WAIT to make this! Thanks so much for sharing--I always love your tutorials.

    Question: is the crust on this bread very hard? Thanks!

     
  • At March 20, 2011 at 2:49 AM , Anonymous Jessa said...

    Beth, this looks fantastic. Do you think it would work as well with other olive varieties?

     
  • At March 20, 2011 at 7:45 AM , Blogger Beth M said...

    Jessa - yes, you can use any olives that you like :)

     
  • At March 20, 2011 at 4:23 PM , Blogger Eva Sylwester said...

    I've been putting olives in your no-knead bread recipe for months and have been meaning to comment about that. World Market has a lot of olives and sometimes has a coupon for $10 off $30 of merchandise in their weekly ad, so that's a good opportunity to stock up. Last time I did that, it wound up being five jars of olives and a jar of sundried tomatoes for $22.34 (average $3.72 per jar). If you do go to World Market, though, avoid the store brand because those are marinated in vinegar and gross. The Mezzetta olives are what's good there. Some of the Mezzetta varieties are marinated in wine, and I use 1/4-1/2 cup of the marinade in place of that much water in the recipe.

    One combination that's good: Use olives stuffed with jalapeno peppers, and then top the bread with some grated cheddar cheese just before putting it in the oven.

    Re: whole wheat flour, I sometimes use that, and when I do, I find that it requires more water than the regular white flour to achieve the same dough consistency. Do you find that?

    Anyway, cool blog. I also recently brought your Thai Cucumber Salad (July 2009) to a potluck, and it was very well received.

     
  • At March 20, 2011 at 11:10 PM , Blogger The Nerd said...

    I tried this recipe with the slight variation of only using white flour, and I also used a bit of garlic powder, paprika powder, and crushed red pepper. It was slightly wetter than the photos showed, but it turned out perfect after 30 minutes. I brought it to a party and my friends were so impressed. One even asked me what else was in it besides olive, because "one bite was slightly more flavorful than the rest", so the tiny bit of crushed red pepper did make a positive difference.

     
  • At April 6, 2011 at 4:04 AM , Anonymous Lise said...

    I make almost this exact recipe quite often. What I found makes a big difference is making a yeast starter - half the flour into a wet dough (similar amount of water as used in the end recipe), maybe half the yeast, put into the fridge overnight (12-16 hours). It makes a very springy starter and results in great bread texture.

    Nice food blog!

     
  • At October 7, 2011 at 12:19 PM , Blogger Cat Ray said...

    I love making olive bread! There are so many different olive varieties to choose from. I have tried Lindsay Olives recently and they are to die for !

     

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