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Olive bread – the best bread I’ve ever baked

Thank you for all your wonderful name suggestions for my video series. I had such a tough time deciding but finally went for Claire K’s Creations because I think it sums be up nicely and it will fit if I ever want to throw in a non-food creation like I sometimes do. Thanks Stephanie!

Everyone was so nice about my first video and made me feel so much better about doing it. I guess it’s just one of those things you need to think ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ There really is no worst-case scenario when it comes to loading a recipe video on Youtube so I’m jumping into it and aiming to have one up every Friday.

I will start on new recipes soon, but for the moment I’m going to recreate a few old favorites.

Kirsty asked to see a bread video so here you go Kirsty… how to make olive bread. I give a few tips on using the yeast as well as kneading so you should be making perfect loaves in no time!

A few things to note:

– You can play spot the difference in the background. Can you guess what I had for lunch that day?

– Which word do I say way too much? Never knew I did that but I’m realising it now!

– I left in any stupid corny commentary I make about what I’m doing just for a laugh. I’m no pro so there’s no point pretending!

– I like to act out what I’m saying just in case you don’t know what stirring looks like (maybe I knew sign language in a previous life?)

So what about you? What would you like to see in my videos?

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Olive bread – the best bread I’ve ever baked

(recipe adapted from this recipe)

Olive bread - the best bread I've ever baked

Olive bread - the best bread I've ever baked

Ingredients

  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar (I used 1tsp)
  • 1 teaspoon salt (I used 2 tsp)
  • 1/2 cup chopped black olives
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 1 tablespoon cornmeal (polenta)

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, mix together flour, yeast, sugar, salt, black olives, olive oil, and water. You can do this using a dough hook on a stand mixer.
  2. Turn out dough onto a floured board and knead it until it is smooth and elastic.
  3. Set it aside to rise for about 45 minutes or until it doubles in size.
  4. Punch the risen dough down and then knead it again fora 5-10 minutes or until it's smooth.
  5. Cover it again and leave to rise for 30 minutes or until it doubles in size.
  6. Use your hands to shape the dough into a round ball.
  7. Line a large bowl with a lint-free tea towel and coat it generously with flour.
  8. Turn the dough into the tea towel so it is seam-side up.
  9. Dust the top with a bit more flour and then cover it loosely and leave it to double in size again (about 20 minutes).
  10. While the bread is rising for the third time, put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven and preheat it to 210C fan-forced.
  11. Line a baking tray with paper or a silicon baking mat and sprinkle it with polenta.
  12. Gently invert the dough onto the baking tray.
  13. Bake the loaf at 210C for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 170C and bake for 30 more minutes, or until it is golden.
  14. Leave to cool on a wire rack before slicing.

 

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