I must admit that I love food. I don’t think that I eat too much, but what I do eat has to be great. This bread is no exception.

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of my sourdough starter (If you do not have a mother see my blog, Soughdough Bread, is it Better for Us and Why. You can get sourdough culture here.)
• 2 cups organic unbleached plain flour
• 2 cups organic wholemeal flour
• 1 1/2 cups non-chlorinated water
• 1/3 cup of olive oil. I used olive oil that I had previously infused with rosemary from my garden.
• 1/2 teaspoon iodine-free salt
• 1-2 teaspoons of dried rosemary
• 1/2 cup of pitted and chopped black olives  

Instructions:

Place your 500 grams of the mother (starter) into a large bowl and then add your plain and wholemeal flour, water, olive oil, iodine-free salt, and dried rosemary.

Mix together until combined and then turn out onto a lightly floured surface.

Knead until smooth and elastic. Under-kneaded bread can collapse so don’t skimp on this step.  

Once your dough is the right texture, place it in a clean, oiled bowl to rise. This is not a quick bead where you add commercial yeast. You are using sourdough mother, so expect this to take some time. Slow proving of the bread allows for the development of flavours and gives the bacteria time to break down the damaging peptide(s) in gluten that humans do not digest well.

Cover the bowl with a clean wet tea towel or some cling wrap and allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size. Punch it down and then turn it out onto a floured surface. Work the olives into the dough and then divide the dough in half to form your loaves.

Once your loaves have risen a second time, place them into a 220-degree oven to bake. Two small loaves take about 45 minutes. I did one in a loaf tin and one on a baking sheet, just for fun.

This bead has a softer texture, due to the addition of oil and plain flour. The addition of the oil (fat) also makes it less sour and this allows the rosemary and olive flavours to come through for me.

As always, live well

Valerie