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Image of the olive bread cut in slices

Greek style olive bread - Eliopsomo

Course Side Dish
Cuisine Mediterranean
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Resting time 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Author Eleni Georges

Ingredients

Bread

  • 500 g “00” flour, extra for dusting
  • 2 tsp instant dried yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 1 – 1 ¼ cups lukewarm water

Olive mixture

  • 1 ½ cups pitted black olives roughly chopped, see my notes below
  • ½ onion finely diced
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 1 tsp rosemary, I sometimes substitute this with dried mint

Instructions

Break making

  1. Sift the flour in a large bowl, then add the yeast, salt and sugar. Mix all the dry ingredients with your hand to spread evenly. Make a well in the middle, add the oil and one cup of water initially, mixing well with your fingers or a wooden spoon.

  2. Lightly flour a clean surface, bench or board, and tip the dough on it. Keep stretching and kneading with the end of your palm until the dough is consistent in appearance. If there is still flour then you may need to add a bit more water, do so by adding 1 tsp at a time. If the dough is too wet then add a bit more flour. 

    An image of the bowl with the kneaded dough

  3. Once a smooth surface is achieved place the dough back in the bowl, cover with a towel. I usually add a blanket on top too if it is cold in the house. Allow the dough to proof for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. In the meantime prepare the olive mixture.

  4. Once the dough is ready, tip it out on a lightly floured surface. Use your palm and finger tips to spread it out into a rectangular/round shape. Add half the olive mixture in the middle. Fold the corners/edges in the centre and press it down to spread out again. Repeat the process with the rest of the olives. As you combine it all together form it into a round shape.

  5. The olives will cause the dough to be quite moist, lightly dust it with more flour if needed so that the outer surface is not wet. The one I made had a diameter of 17cm, hence the cooking time is based on that. Line a tray with baking paper, place the bread on there and let it rest again for 20min.

  6. Preheat the oven, at the convection setting, at 160°C. Place the tray on the middle rack, cook for 35min and then turn the heat up to 200°C for the last 10-15min. Let it bake until it is evenly brown. 

  7. Place it on a cooling rack and let it cool down before cutting. Enjoy!

Olive mixture

  1. Prepare the olive mixture by adding all the ingredients together. It is important that the olives are at room temperature so that it doesn’t disrupt the yeast’s activation. Hence if they were in the fridge prepare this first and leave it on the kitchen bench to reach room temperature.

Recipe Notes

I typically use pitted olives to reduce the prep time in having to take the pits out. If you are using olives brined in a jar then allow them to strain to remove all the liquid they’ve been soaking in. If you are using olives that are already marinated then do not add the extra olive oil in the mixture.

The onion ideally should be lightly fried for easy digestion however most of the times in this case i add it in the mixture raw.