Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 4 cups (500g) unbleached bread flour or all-purpose flour ( I like to use 375g bread flour + 125g white whole wheat flour)
- 3/4 tsp dry active yeast or instant yeast
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp dried Greek oregano
- *optional: 2 tsp sugar (adding a touch of sugar accentuates the flavors of the olives)
- 2 cups room temperature water (*if you live in an especially humid region, you may want to withhold 1/4 cup water)
- 1 tbsp Greek olive oil
- 1 cup naturally cured Greek olives, pitted & roughly chopped (if you are using olives with pits, measure your olives before pitting them)
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, yeast, and dried oregano (add sugar now if using). Mix the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon or spatula (I like to use a Danish dough whisk) until well combined. Add in the water & olive oil and stir until a shaggy dough has formed. (The dough may seem wet at this stage, but trust the process, it will firm up a bit during fermentation).
- Add in the prepared olives and stir to evenly distribute the olives throughout the dough.
- Cover your bowl with plastic wrap, followed by a kitchen towel. Leave the dough to rest for 18 hours at room temperature (70°F/21°C is ideal)
- Preheat your oven to 450°F/230°C. Place a dutch oven with a lid in the oven on the center rack to preheat while the oven heats. Leave the Dutch oven to heat for at least 20 minutes once the oven reaches 450°F.
- Once the dutch oven is adequately pre-heated, generously flour a work surface and gently let the dough slide out of the bowl onto the prepared surface.
- Lightly sprinkle the top of the dough with flour, and gently fold the edges of the dough toward the center, overlapping each flap of dough with the following fold.
- Flip the dough ball over, so the folds are facing down. Sprinkle the dough with a bit more flour, and gently shape the dough into a ball by rotating and pulling it towards you a few times. Do not knead the dough, just gently coax it until a round shape is formed.
- Transfer the dough round, seam side down, onto a sheet of parchment paper. Use oven-proof gloves/mitts to carefully remove the pre-heated Dutch oven from the oven, and place it on a trivet or on your stovetop. Remove the lid, pick up the parchment paper with the dough on it, and carefully place it in the dutch oven. Put the lid back on and bake, covered for 25 minutes. Remove the lid, and continue to bake for another 30-35 minutes until the crust is deeply golden brown. Let cool on a baking rack & enjoy!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: BREAD, GREEK
- Cuisine: Greek
