I don’t know what prompted my desire for olive bread sticks, but here we are again. These bread sticks are SO good. They are a bit of a pain (the forming and cutting and placing on the cookie sheet) to make, but worth it.

Learning from my previous bake I cut the whole, pitted olives in half as the previous ones were just too big.

AND… as long as the oven was on, I used a long, thin Dutch oven to make a nice sized artisan loaf for sandwiches, (and to eat slathered with butter.)

Olive Bread Sticks

(Paul Hollywood Method and Recipe)

• INGREDIENTS
• 500g bread flour, plus extra for dusting
• 10g salt
• 10g instant yeast
• 400ml tepid water
• 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for oiling
• 500 g/1 lb jar pitted green olives in brine, drained fine semolina, for dusting (optional)
• 6g (4 Tbl) finely chopped rosemary (optional)
• 3g (2 Tbl) capers (optional)

METHOD

1. Oil proofing bucket
2. Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add three-quarters of the water and begin mixing on a slow speed. As the dough starts to come together, gradually add the remaining water.
3. Mix for a further 5-8 minutes on a medium speed. The dough should now be wet and stretch easily when pulled. Add the olive oil and mix for a further two minutes. Add the olives, (rosemary and capers, optional) mix until well-distributed.
4. Put the dough into the oiled containers and leave until it has at least tripled in size – for approximately an hour.
5. Line two baking trays with parchment or silicone paper and preheat the oven to 425F Convection. My oven automatically drops the temp to 400F when using Convection.
6. Dust the work surface heavily with flour – add some semolina too, if you have some. Carefully tip the dough onto the surface. It will be very loose and flowing – but don’t worry. Rather than knocking it back, handle it gently so that you keep as much air in the dough as possible.
7. Heavily dust the top of the dough with flour and then stretch it out gently to a rough rectangle. Starting at one long edge, cut the dough into approximately 18 strips. Stretch each piece out until 8-10in long. Place the strips onto the prepared baking trays, spacing them apart to allow for oven rise.
8. Bake the dough sticks for 10-15 minutes until the tops are a golden brown.
9. Cool on wire rack. I use a brush to remove some of the excess flour.