Black Olive Bread (Pane alle Olive Nere)

Ingredients

•     4 cups All purpose flour

•     1 tsp. Salt

•     1 tsp. Garlic powder

•     2 Tbsp. Dry yeast

•     1/2 tsp. Thyme

•     1/2 tsp. Rosemary

•     1 Tbsp. Olive oil extra virgin

•     1 cup Kalamata olives

•     1.5 cup water warm

Instructions

1.     Begin by mixing about 1/4 cup of warm water with the yeast in a small bowl. Set aside.

2.     In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, garlic powder, thyme, rosemary, yeast mix, and the olive oil. Using clean hands, begin mixing the contents in the bowl, by hand. Once mixed, slowly add some warm water and continue to mix. If too dry, slowly add in the extra water. Add in 1/4 cup of water at a time and mix in between. If your hands are sticking to the dough, dip your hands in a bowl of water before kneading the dough again.

3.     Once the dough is sticky, add in the kalamata olives and mix into the dough with your hands.

4.     Sprinkle some flour onto a cutting board or tabletop, remove the dough from the bowl and and continue to knead the dough on the cutting board or tabletop. Continue to knead until the dough is no longer sticky. Form the dough into a ball.

5.     Drizzle some olive oil onto the bottom of a large bowl and then place the dough ball into the bowl. Spin the dough ball around to coat the bottom of the dough with the olive oil. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.

6.     Once the dough has doubled, sprinkle some flour onto the tabletop or cutting board and place the dough ball on top. Fold the dough into itself and form into a ball again. Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough ball.

7.     Sprinkle some flour into a clean large bowl. Place a clean kitchen towel into the bowl and sprinkle the bottom with some flour. Place the dough ball on top of the towel and fold the towel over the dough ball to cover. Let rise for about forty-five minutes.

8.     Fifteen to twenty minutes before the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 470°F. Ten minutes before the dough is ready, place an oven safe, dutch oven into the oven to heat up.

9.     Once the dough is ready, place the dough ball into the dutch oven. Cut two shallow slits on top of the dough and then cover with the dutch oven lid. Bake for forty minutes.

10.     After forty minutes, remove the lid from the dutch oven and bake, uncovered, for another thirty minutes at 440°F.

11.     Remove from the oven and place the olive bread on a rack to cool down.

12.     Cut a few slices and enjoy with some delicious olive oil for dipping! Also perfect for dipping into any leftover sauce from your dish. Salute and cin cin!