Olive Bread

Directions

1. Put all ingredients together in a large bowl and stir together so it all holds as a dough. Then take it out of the bowl and start kneading it on your kitchen counter. At first your dough will seem sturdy and on the dry side, after kneading a while (count until 200 kneads in your head for example or just sing along loudly with top 40 hits for 15 minutes as I prefer), you will notice that it will absorb more and more flour. Just feed the dough with as much all-purpose flour as it will need to not stick to the counter top and don't look at the numbers too much. Kneading comes down to pushing and folding the dough over and over again. After kneading for a while you will notice that the dough gains more elasticity due to the gluten developing. To test whether you have kneaded the dough long enough, just make a ball out of it and push your finger lightly into it. Once the bread bounces back, you have reached the right consistency.
2. Lay down the dough on a chopping board and slice it into 10 or 12 pieces. I would advise you to weigh all different pieces to make sure they have the same weight (this will make sure all pieces bake equally). Roll the pieces into balls with your hands and lie them out on a piece of baking paper (you won't have to transfer it after proving). Lie a clean kitchen towel on top of the dough and leave it out on your kitchen counter for at least 10 hours, any time longer will improve the taste and rise. Overnight, the size of the rolls will have doubled. By this time they are ready to bake.
3. To achieve a good crust, crank up your oven to its maximum temperature (in my case this is 260 degrees Celsius). Leave your baking tray (preferably heavy duty steel or alternatively a muffin tray) in the oven while it is heating up. After the oven has reached the desired temperature, take the baking tray (carefully!) out and lay the baking paper with dough on it (it might even sizzle a little). Return to the oven with speed to lose as little heat as possible, and turn down the heat to 200 degrees Celsius. The initial heat will crisp up the exterior, while the lowered heat will make sure that the inside will bake evenly and airy. Keep an eye on the rolls. Depending on different factors such as your oven, the flour you used and the weather (not kidding;)) your baking times will differ between 20-30 minutes. The rolls are ready when they are easily picked up from the baking paper and sound hollow when you tap on it.
4. Note: I have added simple green olives to this dough as I really like the saltiness and juiciness these olives bring. In my view they also keep the bread fresher for longer. You could easily leave them out or substitute them with for example soaked dried tomatoes. I would be careful with ingredients that contain a lot of oil (such as dried tomatoes on oil) as they will change the structure of the bread and speed up the baking process.