This Sourdough Olive Bread is packed with flavor in a delicious and easy homemade bread!
If you are new to making homemade bread, welcome!
It is SO delicious and you will never want to buy store bought bread again.
This Sourdough Olive Bread is made with sourdough starter.
I am just obsessed with sourdough! Being from San Francisco, it is in my blood. And so many sourdough breads are not up to par.
But with the pandemic and a surge in cooking at home, making bread at home, especially sourdough, has become much more accessible and less scary.
Making Sourdough Starter
There are a lot of recipes out there for making sourdough starter.
I use the King Arthur Flour recipe.
I did find that the results were much different if you use volume (cups) instead of weight. My starter did not work with volume. So I recommend using a kitchen scale and doing this by weight instead.
You could also call around to local shops that make bread and see if you can just purchase some from them, all ready to go!
Olive Choice
I love when recipes give you tips on how to make the recipe your own, and your selection of olives is the best way to change up this homemade bread recipe!
I personally love black or dark olives more than green. So kalamata olives are my go-to choice for many recipes.
Kalamata olives are traditional in the Mediterranean, especially Greek food.
Use any olive color or variety that you like. A medley of mixed olives would also be amazing!
How to Enjoy the Bread
This olive bread should not be completely drowned out so that you can enjoy the olive and the sour flavors.
It makes an amazing garlic bread, or in any recipe (especially Italian or Mediterranean) where the bread is not overpowered by everything else. Such as shakshuka!
And of course, just eating it plain is amazing as well!
Sourdough Starter Recipes
Sourdough Olive Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup sourdough starter (discard or ripely fed)
- 1 ¼ cups lukewarm water
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- ¼ ounce yeast (one package) (or 2 teaspoons)
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons salt (15 g)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano or rosemary, or thyme
- 4 ½ cups all purpose flour (more or less as needed)
- 1 cup kalamata olives pitted, dried, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients except for the olives in a large bowl. Mix until incorporated, using more flour if sticky.
- Put the dough on a clean surface and knead until smooth. Stretch out the dough, put the olives in the middle, and gently fold to incorporate the olives into the dough,.
- Cover the dough with a towel or saran wrap and let rest until doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.
- Cut the dough in half.
- Shape each half of dough into a round loaf and place on a baking sheet that is lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, and lightly sprayed with nonstick spray.
- Cover the dough again with a clean towel and let rise until poofy, approximately 60 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Make one or two slashes in the top of each loaf, approximately 1-2 inches deep.
- Bake the bread for approximately 30 minutes until they are a dark golden brown. Let them cool on a cooling rack.
- Let cool completely before slicing. Gently warm in an oven if desired after cooling for serving.
