Tartine Country Bread with Kalamata Olives and Rosemary

We bought fresh Kalamata olives and we have a beautiful Rosemary plant in the garden. What should I bake with these nice ingredients?

Off course a Tartine Country Bread. Most of my Tartines (see my discovery of ....) were baked in my flowerpot or ceramic pan. The result is great, but the shape is every time almost the same. This time I wanted something different and shaped this bread.

While writing this post, the bread is out of the oven. It looks and smells very nice. In the oven I have some tomatoes, onion slices and garlic with sea salt, pepper, dried rosemary and olive oil. It’s roasting very slowly and the kitchen is starting to smell like Italy. This evening we had a nice Italian sandwich. This tartine also taste delicious; crust is crunchy, crumb is soft. The olives add the extra flavor and there is a little sent of rosemary.  

This is what I used:

350 grams lukewarm water
100 grams leaven
450 grams white all purpose flour

20 grams whole wheat flour

20 grams whole wheat bran

10 grams rye flour
10 grams salt

50 grams Kalamata olives

3 teaspoons of fresh rosemary leaves

This is what I did:

The day before baking, prepare the leaven. I made a 100% mature (50% water and 50% flour) starter. When it increased enough I moved it to the refrigerator for the night. Early next morning, thanks to fighting cats, I took it out. It was warm enough when I was ready to start making the bread.

Mixing the Dough:

Weigh 350 grams of 26˚C water and pour it into a large mixing bowl.  Add 100 grams leaven and stir it to disperse. Add all the flour in the bowl and mix thoroughly by hand until you do not see any bits of dry flour. 

Let the dough rest for 25 to 40 minutes.  Don’t skip the rest period.  It allows the protein and starch in the flour to absorb the water, swell, and then relax into a cohesive mass.

After the dough has rested, add the 10 grams of salt. Add the pieces of Kalamata olives and the chopped rosemary leaves.

Fold the dough on top of itself in a container. I made my hands wet with some water to prevent from sticking to the dough. Grab with your hands under the dough and lift it out of the container.  Carefully stretch the dough in the air. Be gently to avoid pressing gas out of the dough. Fold right side over left side and do the same with top and bottom. Place it back in the container and cover with plastic.

I folded 4 times each half hour. Let it rest for the last hours. It depends on the temperature in your kitchen how long you need.

Shaping the Loaf:

Pull the dough out of the container onto a floured work surface. Stretch the dough to a square. Fold like an envelope; make sure the floured side stays on the outside.

Turn the dough with the seam side on the work surface. Shape into a ball. Cover the ball and let it rest for 30 minutes.

For final shape, don’t use flour, the ball needs to get a bit of grip on the work surface and close the seam while you keep on turning it. Cup your hand. Gently shape it into a ball.

Proofing the loaf:

I placed the loaf in a floured banneton. Placed it in a plastic bag and let it proof for 1 hour. I placed the bag in the refrigerator for the night.

Next morning; bakingday:

Take the loaf out of the refrigerator and let it warm up. In the mean time pre heat the oven to 230˚C. For steam I placed the baking pan with hot stones on the bottom of the oven.

Just before placing the loaf in the oven I boiled water for steaming. I use a glass bottle to pour the boiling water in the hot baking pan. I placed the loaf on the peel with parchment paper and scored it. I placed the loaf in the oven en quickly poured the boiling water in the hot baking pan.

The first 15 minutes I baked the loaf with steam. The last 25 minutes without steam and without baking pan and parchment. I gave the loaf another 5 minutes with a cracked door and the oven off.

Let the loaf cool on a wire rack.

I send this to YeastSpotting and Bake Your Own Bread