Olive Bread

Occasion : Just wanted to enjoy the taste of Cyprus

Yes this time I baked something for myself. If you had been to Cyprus and if you didn't taste the warm olive bread you get there, then I would say that's the biggest mistake you have ever made. I will always be thankful to Harish Mayavel who went through all the trouble of getting me Olive bread almost everyday when I was pregnant. The freshness and the scent of olive and basil in the olive bread is something I can never forget.

After yeeaarrs of cribbing and missing the olive bread I decided to search for recipe and bake my very own olive bread. But when I started searching for recipe with photo I realized nothing looked like the one which I used to get in Cyprus. Finally found a recipe book which had a similar olive bread and made my deary buy it for me :). Of course does he have any other option???

What do I after getting book? I slept over it for a month fearing that I will screw it up. Finally on a weekday night at 8 I decided to bake it without realizing that its gonna take at least 4 to 5 hrs to get it done :(. So what do I do? I made my better-half stay awake with me till I finished it :).When I took these 2 beautiful pieces of olive bread out of oven it was 1 AM, but it was worth the wait and effort.

Before getting on to the recipe one small tip for those who are gonna try this. If you are planning to bake this start it in morning.
1.  It will give you ample amount of time.
2.The dough will rise better when sunlight is there. I had warmed up my oven and kept the dough inside to rise.

Now lets see how to bake it.

- Combine 4 tsp of Dry Yeast, 1 tsp of Sugar, 1 1/4 cup of Warm Milk in a large bowl and whisk until yeast is dissolved.
- Whisk in 2 cups of Plain Sifted Flour, cover, stand in warm place about 30 minutes or wait till the mixture is doubled in size.
- Stir in 1/3 cup of Olive oil , sifted 3 1/2 cup of Plain Flour and 1 tsp Salt.
-Turn the dough onto the floured surface and knead for about 10 mins or until the dough is smooth and elastic.
-Place the dough in a large bowl, cover, stand in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough is doubled in size.
- Once the dough is doubled turn it into floured surface and knead in 1 1/4 cups of copped Black Olives, 2 to 3 tsp of chopped Basil and 2 tsp of chopped oregano (since I didn't have fresh oregano I used the dried one).
- You can either split the dough into 2 portions or you can roll the whole dough to 30 cm x 35 cm oval shape and fold dough almost in half and transfer to large greased oven tray.
- Cover dough, stand in warm place about 45 mins or until the dough has increased in size by half.
- Sift about another 2 tablespoon of flour over the dough and its ready to bake.
- Bake it in moderate oven (180 degree) for about 45 minutes.

                                      

Take it out and let it rest till its warm. And then slice it and eat it with nice big dollop of butter.