I’ve been baking no knead bread every week or so for over a year now and I’m getting pretty decent at it. It’s really simple to learn and once you’ve made a few dozen loafs you start to pick up on subtle differences that make one loaf slightly better than the other.
Pretty much all of them are way superior than anything you can buy in the store though. That said, I must admit that I’ve been getting a bit bored lately with the standard recipe. That’s why I was very excited to get my hands on My Bread by Jim Lahey, the founder of the No Knead Method (My Review).
There are a lot of great recipes in the book, but the one that slapped me across the mouth right away was the olive bread recipe. Maybe it’s just because I love olives so much, but I had to make this as soon as possible.
I’d never had olive bread before, but I think it was probably the best loaf of bread I’ve ever made.
I think my favorite loaf ever!
The crust on this loaf was great. Really crunchy and delicious. And the interior crumb was chewy and had a really nice structure. Then every other bite or so you’ll run into an olive which has made a rich, briny, salty pocket of flavor.
I think this is not something that most people are used to when they think of bread. I’ve talked to a few people about it and they stare at me… “So there are olives? In the bread? Weird.” Maybe it’s a tough sell, but I promise you won’t be disappointed if you try it (assuming you at least somewhat like olives obviously).
Olive Bread (From Jim Lahey’s My Bread)
- 3 Cups Bread Flour
- 1 1/2 Cup Kalamata Olives, pitted, drained, roughly chopped
- 3/4 Teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 Cups cool waterHelpful Equipment:
- Heavy enameled cast iron pot. (That’s a link to the Ferrari of pots. Here’s another with great ratings.)
Simple Ingredients.
If you’re a regular bread maker, you might note that this recipe is missing salt – a normal staple in bread. That’s because the olives have plenty of saltiness and over the long fermentation time, that saltiness creeps out into the bread. It’s seriously amazing.
Making the dough. The dough for this is just like making a normal no knead loaf except that you need to chop up some olives. Use good olives that are kept in a salt brine. Divina makes a great product.
Drain the olives and pat them dry. Then give these guys a rough chop and make sure that all the olives actually don’t have pits. Sometimes the pitting machines will miss one or two per jar. Be on the lookout! You don’t want Broken Tooth Bread.
Chunks are good.
Mix your yeast and flour together in a large bowl and then toss in your chopped olives. Don’t worry. The olives won’t turn the bread a strange color. Then add your water and mix everything together using your hand or a large spoon.
I prefer the clean hand method myself. After just a few seconds you should have a pretty moist ball of dough. It should be very wet. You wouldn’t be able to knead this even if you wanted to.
Just a few seconds to pull this together.
Cover this and let it sit at room temperature for 14-18 hours. I let mine sit for the full 18 and this is what resulted!
After 18 hours...
It’s a big bubbly mess. That’s good. That means the yeast has done its job.
Next, take a large tea towel and sprinkle it liberally with flour and corn meal. If you don’t have corn meal you can just use flour, but corn meal adds a great texture to it.
Don't make fun of my ugly 70s towel please.
Scrape your dough (you’ll need to scrape it) out onto a floured surface and just fold it a few times, liberally flouring both sides if it is sticking. Eventually you want to form a ball or loaf with it.
This was not the best one I’ve ever made.
Not my best shaping job. Whatever.
Turn this onto your floured towel with the seam side down on the towel. The seam side by the way, is the side that’s on top in the above photo. So I flipped it so that was down on the floured towel.
Cover that towel and let the loaf ferment and proof for another two hours.
Baking the bread. After your bread has been proofing for about 90 minutes, preheat your oven to AS HOT AS YOU CAN. For me this was 500 degrees.
The traditional way to make no knead bread is to use a heavy enameled cast iron pot. If you don’t have one of those though, I’ve shown a few other ways you can bake this loaf in this post.
Assuming you do have a proper pot though, you want to get it blazing hot also. I usually let my pot heat in the oven for at least 30 minutes so it is as hot as can be. Don’t preheat the lid in the oven. Just the pot itself.
Once your pot is blazing hot, pick up the towel with the dough on it and roll the dough into the pot so the seam side is up again! It should look something like this:
It all evens out in the pot.
If it’s a bit uneven that’s okay. The dough will spread out and even out as it cooks.
Baking the bread. Put the lid on the pot and cook it for 30 minutes. Then take off the lid (be really careful of escaping steam). Cook it for another 20 minutes or so until the crust is a dark, walnut brown.
Let it cool on a wire rack for an hour before slicing it.
Crusty and Delicious!
One of the worries I had with this loaf is how it would be for a sandwich. No worries there! I’ve made a few turkey sandwiches with it and it is so good. The olives are fantastic. It’s ends up being a really subtle flavor throughout the bread. It’s not the overpowering briny flavor that you get when you actually eat an olive.
It’s subtle and salty and delicious.
I’ll be completely honest. I think this might be one of the better loafs of bread I’ve ever eaten. Definitely the best I’ve ever cooked. I just can’t say enough good things about it!
If you’ve tried olive bread before, leave a comment and confirm its amazingness.
You should use this for another entry in your search for the best grilled cheese… some really good mozzarella or gruyere would be a perfect complement.
That bread looks awesome. I need to get a Le Creuset pot so that I can try this out.
I just bought “My Bread” and want to make everything in it. I’ve come up with an alternative to the floured tea towel step for no-knead bread, though. I put the dough on cornmeal-covered parchment paper before its second rise and then just pick up the paper and bread together and put them in the hot pot. The paper doesn’t burn and you can just pick the loaf up by the corners of the paper when it’s done. Neat.
What? In DC you can’t just go into a store and buy olive bread? We’ve been buying olive bread in the store for years in California! It’s always better homemade though. :0)
That looks so professional! Wonder if you can incorporate sundried tomatoes into it too…
I am going to try this I promise… you are talking me down off the fear of baking ledge with each one of these. GREG
Ohmygod this looks great, must try. Recently ate some olive-cheese bread, which was phenomenal.
@Rex: I use this recipe in my 12-quart copper-bottomed stock pot all the time to great results. Unless you’re looking for an excuse to buy Le Creuset…
I’ll totally vouch for the deliciousness of olive bread AND this recipe. Nick, thanks for showing those of us who are less adventurous that the no-knead bread recipe can stand up to some modifications!
I love olive bread and no knead bread. Great idea combining the two. I will have to try it sometime!
This looks goooooood!! I have not made olive bread before, but my husband loves to bake bread so I will hand this one off to him and I will let you know how it turns out.
Awesome towel.
“No knead bread” is definitely the bread for me. This magical phrase says so much about the final effect of the bread. And the olive inside the bread – perfect idea.
No knead bread was a completely life changing discovery for me. I must try this variation soon!
Thanks for the comments everyone! @Mimi. I don’t know of a place in DC where I can get it but I’m sure I can… honestly I haven’t looked that hard. ;)
Oh my goodness, this bread looks divine!
This is one gorgeous, perfect bread! My friend taught me to make her no-knead bread and it’s fabulous! But I love the look of yours, the olives (we love olive bread) and the crumb/texture looks wonderful. Am marking this down!
Can you mail me a few slices
I am new to this site and it looks wonderful. Just made my first loaf of sourdough bread here in North GA, the southern terminus of the Ap Trail, so my sourdough starter is Appalachian :-) It came out perfect! Just amazing baking bread like that! Used my own well water too, and ground my red wheat berries. My ego is a little “swelled” right now! I am psyched to find your receipe, because just a few days ago I decided to incorporate olives into my next loaf of sourdough. I have had this bread before (store bought) and your are right, it is out of this world. I am also going to use pieces of fresh garlic and rosemary from my garden. Stay tuned for coming attractions folks. Sounds good, huh? Wish me luck.
I’ve just started to make my own bread using Sprouted Wheat Flour. I am going to try this recipe with it and see how it turns out. I buy a roasted garlic loaf from Costco that is very similar to this in consistency and LOVE IT. I can’t wait to try this at home tonight!
Made it this morning- my first ever olive bread, not to mention my first no-knead bread, or any kind of bread!
I didn’t have a baking sheet or a pizza stone or a dutch oven, so I used a ceramic quiche dish and it came out very nicely.
Thanks for this! Where I live in Australia, good and interesting fresh bread is easy to buy, but expensive! I love making things myself when I can and I am glad to have come across this recipe :)
We can get good olive bread here in Princeton at an artisanal bakery, but there’s nothing like making it fresh at home. I love Jim Lahey’s bread recipe and make it often in cooler weather. But now you’ve given me incentive to try it with olives.
Mmmm… olive bread! Yes, I’ve had it before, and yes, it is totally amazing! Can’t wait to try your recipe.
[...] Olive bread Sundried tomato and parm [...]
I tried this and it’s great. I make a lot of “traditional” kneaded bread, but the cooking method and pan make this exceptional with a great texture.
I made two loaves of bread yesterday/today. I made the Olive bread and put some rosemary in it. I just tasted it and y u m m y !!! Wait a sec while I try the other loaf which is plain, but I did add some Summer Savory.
Result: Wowee Wow Wow.
Thanks, Nick.
THIS WAS BY FAR THE BEST OLIVE BREAD I–WE HAVE EVER TASTED AND THAT I HAVE BAKED. IT WAS A HUGE HIT AT THE CHRISTMAS PARTY–I AM JUST SORRY I DIDN’T MAKE 2!!! IT WAS A FUN BAKE TO!! THANK YOU! THIS ONE GOES TO THE CHALET FOR FUTURE BAKES!
I cannot believe I am baking. I was surfing the internet and chanced upon MACHEESMO- NO KNEAD BREAD I don’t know what got into me but I decided to try it. Well, I and my househould could not believe that the bread came out so perfect, the taste was much better than store bouught. This is my fourth week of making NDB so I decided to try the olive bread. This was sooooo good. I am now hooked on no knead bread making.
Its so good and so si,ple
Thanks You’ve changed my life
Thanks
Thank you, awesome post.
I love that you provide alternatives, tips and suggestions. I was wondering to myself if I could do no knead with out the fancy pot…. I really appreciate that you found out for me.
Awesome post! I love olive bread, but I buy it, because I have never made olive bread, or any kind of bread, myself. Olives and bread go wonderfully together. I also turn the weirdness up by toasting a piece of olive bread and spreading some good quality honey on it – it is salty and sweet and amazing. I wonder how this bread will do with some rosemary? I have been reading about no-knead bread for a while and this is the loaf to try! Thanks again.
Just want everyone to know that you don’t have to go out and buy an expensive pot to make this in. Check antique stores, thrift stores, and rummage sale for enameled cast iron. I found one in great condition for a few bucks at a rummage sale and I love it and use it all the time. I am an avid baker and cook and have not felt the need to “upgrade” with an expensive alternative.
By the way…thank you for the fantastic recipe!!!
I’m anxious to try this recipe but can’t find bread flour. Any suggestions or substitute? thanks
You can definitely sub all-purpose flour for the bread flour. The final result probably won’t be quite as, well, bready, but it’ll still be good.
Let me know how it turns out!