BREAD baking

[NoNo]

I have a question to those of you who have made the olive bread. I made it the other day with the olive oil dough and it was fantastic! However, I feel like I need to double the amount of olives they call for, and all of my olives ended up at the top of the loaf. How do you get them to spread more evenly throughout the dough?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I have a question to those of you who have made the olive bread. I made it the other day with the olive oil dough and it was fantastic! However, I feel like I need to double the amount of olives they call for, and all of my olives ended up at the top of the loaf. How do you get them to spread more evenly throughout the dough?

Best done fresh mixed dough, not from fridge-stored (too cold):
After the dough has been mixed and risen for two hours, then pull of your usual amount of dough to make a loaf with.
Put it on the floured counter, and pull-pat it into a rectangle about 1/4" to 3/8" thick. Sprinkle the olive ingredients (i use sliced calamata olives, some pre-soked sundried tom., and some browned garlic or onions) evenly over the rectangle of dough.
Roll the rectangle up from one end, then pull the surface over it to make a ball with a skin of dough that has a bit if tension, careful not to tear holes as you pull the skin. Tuck the edges under the ball, then lay the ball as usual on your corn-meal sprinkled parchment paper. Let rest as usual, then dust top with flour (I use a little strainer to sprinkle the flour dusting), slash with at least 4 or 5 slashes 1/4" deep, and bake. This is how I do it and it comes out pretty well.

[NoNo]

Roll the rectangle up from one end, then pull the surface over it to make a ball with a skin of dough that has a bit if tension, careful not to tear holes as you pull the skin.

Are you rolling along the long or short end of the rectangle, or does it not matter? That sounds similar to the technique they describe for the sun-dried tomato bread, where you get more of a stuffed bread look, not what I'm trying to do with this.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Are you rolling along the long or short end of the rectangle, or does it not matter? That sounds similar to the technique they describe for the sun-dried tomato bread, where you get more of a stuffed bread look, not what I'm trying to do with this.

It's just a way of distributing the olives etc. more evenly through the loaf. I start rolling the short side. I pull edges under in the end to form a ball-like loaf. here's how it comes out:
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/05/olive-bread.html

Is that what you call a 'stuffed bread look"? I'm not quite sure what your goal is.

[NoNo]

No, that looks just like what I want. I'll give that a try tonight, thanks!

[ccnyc]

I've been reading this thread with much envy because I wanted to bake these beautiful breads, too. But I am gluten intolerant so must avoid wheat, etc. The gluten-free bread recipes I've tried all turned out terrible... until... Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, the second book from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day authors. There's a whole chapter on gluten-free breads.

Here is my first boule. Of course it doesn't taste like wheat bread, but it's actually very good and the sourdough taste of the bread is far superior to any GF bread I have baked or purchased. And it was super easy. The hard part was waiting for it to cool for two hours before slicing into it and tasting it. Gooooood!

Carol

[Susan Otcenas]

The hard part was waiting for it to cool for two hours before slicing into it and tasting it.

It never lasts 2 hours in my house. Fresh bread hot out of the oven is irresistible!