Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I like working with dough of any kind. I make all our breads, pizza crusts and pasta(I do the pasta by hand but have a nice machine for rolling and making nice ravioli or Linguine.

I have in the oven at the moment an Olive loaf, so while I had everything out I thought I would post it to my website and let those here that may be interested know that it exist.

Olive loaf is something that gets made only a few times a year, it is very expensive by comparison to lets say a French bread that I make all the time. But today was the day.

Let me know what you think, it really makes for a tasty loaf of bread.

http://barrysplace.yolasite.com/breads.php

Enjoy,
Barry

Interesting, I did an olive loaf two weeks ago.
It was more of an experiment in flavors, so I did some research looking for ideas.
There are several recipes, the one that struck me was by Nancy Silverton (on a Julia Child video)
See the link below, meanwhile
Here's my result:


I chopped my olives (kalamatas) with the intent to spread the flavor throughout the bread.
I did not use any commercial yeast, just my sour dough starter.
It took me 2-1/2 days because of the long refrigerated rise times.

Chef Silverton uses whole olives in her version.
I found her kneading process very interesting -- I've actually started practicing her style.
Follow this link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kPu2tzOlHg

Nice bread and welcome to the board!

Mary

It's good to see you here, John. I think you'll like the folks. Great place for an engineer. Most are refugees from TOBB - The Other Bulletin Board. It's a frequent reference to the now defunct boards at Cook's Illustrated from America's Test Kitchen.

Back on topic -
Bread looks great. I'll bet someone here can make some recommendations about adding olives to your loaf.

SS (we already have another Kathy, so I just stick with SS).

Yea, I experienced a mild level of baker's regret by not keeping more of my olives whole. As with any unusual loaf, it is a neat learning experience.

SS and Mary, your greetings for this newcomer are highly appreciated.
I'm looking forward to many stimulating conversations!

Thanks, John

Hi John, and let me add my welcome to the board!

I make olive bread frequently, and don't cut them up. Or, at most, I cut some of them in half.

Your loaf looks lovely, but may I make a suggestion? Score your bread fewer times and on an angle that more closely follows the length of the bread. I'd do three slashes...

Amy

Hi Amy, Thanks and I agree.
I guess I'm just a slasher at heart.

Should we be scared?

This brings up an interesting question, what is the purpose of slashing. I do it just the way everyone else does, I go more with Amy's 3 slashes and out. There must be a reasons, all the Artisan breads are all slashed.

Barry

It releases trapped gas.

Amy