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
- Oil proofing bucket
- 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.
- 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.
- Put the dough into the oiled containers and leave until it has at least tripled in size – for approximately an hour.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Bake the dough sticks for 10-15 minutes until the tops are a golden brown.
- Cool on wire rack. I use a brush to remove some of the excess flour.
aBatteredOldSuitcase 