Olive Bread

Perfect for dipping in extra virgin olive oil. No kneading required - just stir everything together the evening before and leave it to work its magic.

1. 1

   Start the day before as it needs to be left for 12 - 18 hours. This first stage just takes a couple of minutes.
   Put the flour, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl. Drain and roughly chop the olives, add to the bowl then pour in the water and mix together, either with your hands, a dough scraper or the handle of a wooden spoon. Once it has come together, cover the bowl with cling film and leave at room temperature (approx. 20 degrees C is recommended in the original recipe - mine is usually 17-18 degrees C and is fine) for 12 - 18 hours**.
   
   After this time, the surface will be dotted with bubbles. It is quite a wet, sloppy dough.
   Dust the work surface with flour and tip out the dough and dust the top with a little more flour. Despite it being wet and sloppy, do your best to fold it over itself, like a book. Do this twice, dusting with a little more flour if needed. Cover loosely with a piece of cling film (you can brush this with a little oil if you want to, to avoid sticking) and leave to rest on the work surface for 15 minutes.
   Take a clean tea towel, linen cloth or sheet of greaseproof paper and dust all over really generously with flour and / or semolina.
   In the original recipe the next step is 'using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball'. In practice, having made this a few times, I find that a neat ball is difficult because the dough is so soft, so just do your best, then place it seam side down on the cloth / paper. Dust the top, again generously, the wrap the cloth over the top of the dough or lay a piece of lightly oiled cling film on top. Leave at room temperature for 2 hours, 3 if your house is cold (under 20 C). It is ready when it has doubled in size (it will spread out as it is so wet) and leaves an indentation when you poke it with your finger, if the dough springs back straight away, it needs more time,
   At least 30 minutes before it has finished proving, put a cast iron, ceramic or pyrex pot with a lid (no plastic handle!) in the oven, with the lid on***. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees C.
   Take the hot pot from the oven (be careful as it will be red hot), lift the dough and turn the cloth/ paper over to tip it into the pot. It will most likely look a mess, but don't worry. Give the pot a little shake, put the lid on and return it to the oven for half an hour. After half an hour, turn the temperature down to 230 degrees C, remove the lid and bake for a further 20 minutes.
   Remove from the pot and leave to cool on a wire rack.