Baker Street

Bread 101 is tackling a simple and everyday bread today. Great when served with a bowl of pasta, a hearty soup, a chunk of meat or a simple stew. What I like about this versatile bread is that all the ingredients will be already be in your pantry. This is the Olive Oil Bread. Olive oil produces a nice soft crumb and a tender crust, making this one of the most versatile breads to make. Try an additions and combinations of your choice: olives, fresh herbs, garlic, cheese or even sun dried tomatoes. An honest bread that is easy, quick and so tasty. Perfect for someone who is afraid to bake with yeast.

Our guest today is Nancy, from Spicie foodie, a photographer extraordinaire currently living in Europe. Over the last few months, Nancy has been put together a great tutorial with excellent tips and tricks for food photography. She covers topics on how to style your stew to how to size images for the web. Her cooking/ baking skills come to her as easily as her photography. She puts out an incredible variety of food on her blog be it an indian curry or gnocchi or even a pumpkin pie cheesecake.

Take it away, Nancy.

Hi Baker Street readers, I’m Nancy and I blog at Spicie Foodie. Thank you Anuradha for inviting me to participate in your Bread 101 series, it’s a pleasure.

While I don’t consider myself a master baker like our talented host Anuradha, tackling a basic yeast bread is a walk in the park. I promise that even the most novice bakers can handle this simple olive oil bread. The recipe I’m going to share is one of my favorites and go to bread recipes. It is a small loaf perfect for a small family.

Why is yeast so intimidating to so many of us? Is it because yeast is a single-celled living organism, which has to die in order for our breads to rise? Perhaps. But in reality the reason for being intimidated by yeast is probably more based on fear that our breads won’t rise. When I began baking with yeast that was always a concern in the back of my head. Nowadays I’m more comfortable baking with yeast.

I personally found a few steps or tips that helped get me get over my fear of yeast. The first was making sure the liquid called for in bread recipes was warm. The warm temperature helps the yeast activate. Many recipes will give you exact temperatures that the water should be. I don’t use a thermometer, instead I go by what feels like luke warm temperature. The next tip that always put me at ease about yeast rising is proofing. Yeast proofing is when the yeast is dissolved in warm liquid before bringing all ingredients together. By proofing the yeast I can then see if it foams, which means the yeast is alive, or if nothing happens then the yeast is dead and no good for baking. In cases when the yeast does not foam then I simply discard the water yeast mix and begin all over. That way I won’t have to wait until the bread is baked and end up with a flat, heavy brick of a bread. Another thing I do is mix the sweetener, called for in a recipe, with the warm liquid and yeast. I read somewhere that the sugar helps the yeast activate.

The tips or steps above are once I like to use no matter if the recipe calls for mixing the yeast with the dry ingredients or not. But be warned that this is what has worked for me and may or may not work for you. You’ll only find out what works best for you by experimenting and tweaking your skills.

Easy Olive Oil Bread

2 cups or 240 grams bread flour or all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp honey
3/4 cups (175 ml) warm water
1 small packet of instant yeast = 1 tbsp
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, good quality

extra flour for kneading
extra olive oil to brush bowl and bread

1. In a small bowl combine honey, water, and yeast, stir to combine a bit. Put aside to proof yeast for about 5 minutes, or until yeast begins to foam. In a separate bowl combine the flour and salt. Once the yeast has foamed you can proceed to step 2.

2. Make a well in the center of flour bowl. Pour the olive oil, then the water-yeast mixture into the center of flour bowl. Using a wooden spoon stir until a wet dough forms, then switch to your hands for kneading. Depending on how wet the dough is, and the humidity in your kitchen, you will need to add a little bit of flour at a time to form an elastic dough that does not stick to your hands. Continue kneading until a smooth dough is formed, about 10 minutes.

3. Remove the dough and set aside, brush or rub a little bit of olive oil inside the bowl. Place the dough back into the bowl, brush with a little oil, cover and leave to rise in a warm place. Leave to rise for about 1 hour or until doubled in sizes.

Once doubled, preheat oven to 375f or 190c and prepare a baking sheet or bread mould. Remove the risen dough from the bowl, gently knead into desired shape or place inside bread mould.

Leave to rise another 10 minutes. Place bread in center of oven and bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing.

The bread will feel crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. It is perfect as a side to pasta night, as a sandwich bread, or to simply enjoy with your favorite spread alongside some coffee or tea.

Thank you everyone for reading and I hope you give the bread a try. Anuradha thank you for the invitation and I’m really looking forward to following your new Bread 101 series. Happy baking everyone!

Thank you, Nancy. Your simple step-by-step process has totally given me the nudge I need to try this one out. I think I’m going to try a simple rosemary olive oil bread.