Olive Sourdough

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davidg618 on 13 Sep 2011 at 09:06

I haven't made an olive loaf in more than a year; I'd forgotten how delicious olive sourdough is. I checked in both Bread, randMaggie Glezer's Artisan Baking, but found the dough formulae nearly identical to what I bake routinely, so this is just my usual sourdough: 10% Rye and 90% White flours at 68% hydration, with Kalamata olives, halved and pitted. Some of them were as big as walnuts.

David G

I'll have a slice of that thanks David...looks wonderful!

Best wishes

Andy

Olive bread seems to be an all-time favorite. From what I've seen, most artisan bakeries make their version.

Regards,

David G

Your olive loaf...just looks devine!  I have such a habit of devouring the olives before getting them into a loaf.  Olive loaves are one of my favorites.  This classic is hard to beat for bread satisfaction...alone or with a meal!  Very nicely done!

Sylvia 

About six months ago I bought some olives specifically to make bread. When I finally got around to scheduling the bake, all the olives were gone!

David G

Must.Try.This! 

Thank you for sharing, DavidG.  Adding around 10% rye to white flour  is one of  my favourite mix, too. :)

Is the ratio of pre-ferment similar to Glezer/Hamelman's?

lumos

Formula ratios:

10% whole rye, 45% each KA bread flour and KA all-purpose flour.

salt: 2%

Water: 68%

I make this bread two ways:

Retarded 17 hours @ 54°F; 14% of the flour is prefermented. (pre-chilled flour, ice water for 54°F DDT)

No retardation, 28% of the flour is prefermented.

In both cases all of the prefermented flour is Bread flour.

I make ripe levain at room temperature (76°F) in three progressive builds during the previous 24 hours, at 100% hydration, so 1/3rd of the perfermented flour ferments for 24 hours, 2/3rds for 16 hours, and all of it for the last 8 hours.

We prefer the retarded version, but, excluding the levain building, it only takes a long half-day to make the non-retarded version.

David G

Great looking Sourdough, David! Olives complements Sourdough bread very well. The aroma of this loaf alone is out of this world. Great bake, David!

My wife doesn't like olives, so I don't bake this often. I think I'll just do it more frequently. I don't think too many olive loaves are grounds for divorce ;-)

David G

Very nice David and a good generous proportion of olives in that loaf too, did you incorporate them in the stretch and folds?

During the final S&F I distributed 1/4 on top of each fold. Sure beats kneading them in.

David G

As you refer in your recent posting to your 'usual sourdough', would you please give the link to that recipe which you may have posted at some point?  Thank you for being such a great contributor to TFL and continued source of inspiration.

is posted  above, replying to Lumos' question. For completeness:

For the retarded version I chill beginning with 1 hr of autolyse after rough mix followed by a 3 min. machine knead at lowest speed. Subsequently, I do 3 bench S&F at 1 hour intervals and return immediately to chiller.  For the olive loaf, I added the pitted olive halves during the final S&F distributing the olives in 1/4th each fold. Prior to baking I remove the dough from the chiller, immediately cut to loaf weight, pre-shape and let it rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

For the room temperature "quick" version I autolyse 30 mins, 3 bench S&F @ 45 min. intervals, and rest 30 mins. before pre-shape. My levain takes 2 to 2-1/4 hours to proof @ 76°F.

Bake; both versions: 500°F pre-heat 1 hour, 450°F with steam 15 mins., finish @ 450°F (10 - 15 mins; 208°F internal temp.)

David G

P.S. I toasted a slice, and added a thin coating of whipped cream cheese and honey, for breakfast. Addictive!

Your loaves look delicious.  I have Glezer's book, I'll have to give them a try.

Thanks,

Howard