The pimentos all fell out of their respective olives, creating a confetti of red and green dots speckled throughout the dough. I thought that this would bug me, but it does not. There are worse things in the world that don’t turn out as you want them to, but this isn’t so bad. If, however, you know that this will bug you, simply use pitted olives that aren’t stuffed. This makes a great bread to use for a grilled cheese sandwich, by the way. We enjoy it sliced and with a little pat of butter. Enjoy!

green olive bread ingredients 

1 cup lukewarm water

1 Tablespoon honey

2 and 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

3 cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup pitted olives, sliced in half

1/2 teaspoon olive oil for the bowl

parchment paper

1 dutch oven with lid

method

In a small bowl, add the water and honey and stir until the honey is dissolved. Add the yeast and stir gently then let sit for 10 minutes until frothy and bubbly.

In another bowl, add the flour and salt, and stir with a whisk several times. Set aside.

When yeast has bloomed and water is frothy, pour it into the bowl with the flour mixture and stir with a large wooden spoon. Keep stirring until a rough dough starts to form. If dough seems too dry, add a teaspoon of water at a time until dough is more pliable. Transfer to a floured work counter, making sure to scrape all the contents from the bowl to the work counter. 

Knead dough for 10 minutes. Slowly start kneading olives into dough by introducing a little of them at a time while folding and kneading dough. If olives are stuffed with pimentos, the pimentos may fall out of the olives and into the dough. If that bothers you, use olives that aren’t stuffed. I thought it would bother me and tried to keep the pimentos from falling out. It’s impossible to keep them in each olive. Shape dough into a ball.

Lightly grease the large bowl that was initially used with the olive oil and place dough ball into bowl, turning once to coat entire surface of dough ball with the olive oil. Cover bowl with plastic and leave bowl in a warm place undisturbed for an hour or so until dough is doubled in size.

After an hour, punch ball of dough down and reform into a ball again. Instead of putting it back in bowl, instead sprinkle about a 1/4 cup of flour on a large square of parchment paper and place dough ball on top of the flour, then place parchment paper and dough into a clean bowl and let it rise again for about an hour or so.

Heat oven to 450 degrees F. and place a clean empty Dutch oven with the lid on inside the oven. Keep oven at 450 degrees F. for at least 30 minutes prior to baking to allow the Dutch oven to get very hot.

Score a large “x” on the top of dough with a knife. Take the Dutch oven out (watch out, use oven mitts, it’s hot!) of the oven, remove lid, and lift the parchment paper from two sides to transfer the parchment paper and dough into the Dutch oven and place lid back on Dutch oven and place Dutch oven back into oven and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove lid of Dutch oven and let bread continue to bake for 10-15 minutes or until internal temperature of bread is 200 degrees F. Remove bread and let cool out of Dutch oven on a wire rack for at least 45 minutes before slicing and serving.