Olive Bread

Beth and Chris and Christopher made this (among other delicious things) for my bachelorette party. Several weeks back, Tara mentioned how good it was, and something along the lines of how you can't find bread like that in stores or anything. So I thought I'd make some to bring for dinner this past weekend!

Ignore the Little Visitor Damson... Turns out I forgot to take a photo of just the bread.

Olive Bread

from Inn at the Crossroads
Ingredients
6.5 cups flour
1.5 Tbsp yeast
1.5 Tbsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup olive oil
2 3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 cup chopped pitted Kalamata olives
1 sprig chopped rosemary
1/4 cup corn meal

Equipment
LARGE bowl, plastic wrap, oven, baking sheet

Instructions
In the bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the flour, yeast, and 1 cup of the water. Let it sit for 10 minutes. (I used this time to chop the olives up.) Add the salt, honey, oil, rest of the flour and water. Mix (I used a spoon) until the dough starts to come together; add olives and rosemary. Keep mixing until all the loose flour is incorporated. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let it rise for 1.5 hours. (It's supposed to expand a lot, so have a bowl big enough for that! Mine didn't expand THAT much, but I spilled some yeast...)
Dust two baking sheets with corn meal. Divide the dough (it should be sticky) into pieces (I did half; if yours rises more, thirds works too) and pull the edges under until you have a ball-shape. Set them on the baking sheets. Let them rise another 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 450F. Slash the tops with a serrated knife (I totally forgot to do this and it wasn't devastating). Place them in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. The crust should be medium brown (see photo) and firm (I tapped it with a table knife and got a lovely hollow-ish sound).

Yields
I made two loaves; I believe when Beth made it, she got three.

Total time
about 3 hours

Cleanup rating 4/5
The dough is sticky, both of my loaves stuck a tiny bit to the pan, and you have to measure some messy stuff (I got flour everywhere, somehow, and honey is always a pain, though delicious).

Difficulty rating 6/10
For bread, this is insanely easy. It's a no-knead bread, and I managed to ace it on my first try, so it really is ridiculous how easy it is... for bread. But it's an involved process with lots of steps, and whenever you're baking, you have to be very accurate with your measuring.

Flavor rating 8/10
I love this stuff. But I like olives. Birk doesn't like olives; he isn't fond of this bread. Should go without saying, I suppose. The original post says you won't have a single bite without an olive bit in it, and I have found this to be absolutely true. You've got a basic white bread with a great crust (not thick, not hard) and salty little olive bits everywhere, and a hint of rosemary.

Adjustability: low
Maybe someone who's more accustomed to making bread would be able to adjust this recipe more, but this is the first time I've made real bread. (Sure, I made that honey beer bread, but that felt more like a hybrid biscuit-and-cake.) Maybe there are other things with similar density to olives that you could put in the dough? Use something other than rosemary to flavor it? I'm not really sure.

Make it with...
By chance, it went perfectly with what we had for dinner Saturday (a sausage-tomato-cream sauce on rigatoni). It's also a wonderful stand-alone snack. If I were having a wine-and-cheese party, I'd slice this up and set it right next to the cheese plate. It's a hearty bread but not terribly filling, so it goes with a ton of things.

French Croutons

The only "French" thing about these croutons is that I learned how to make croutons on the stove (as opposed to in the oven) when I was in France last year. I didn't follow a recipe or use particularly French ingredients or anything like that. I just had some bread leftover from this day, and decided to try this out... and I was pleased with the results.

"French" Croutons

Ingredients

Bread, cubed

butter

seasonings

shredded Parmesan (I used a four-cheese blend that included Parmesan and Romano)

Equipment

pan, stove

Instructions

Melt butter in your pan on medium heat. (I probably used about 2-3 Tbsp for the amount of bread I had, pictured above). Once it's melted, add your bread cubes. Toss them around to get them thoroughly coated. Season them and toss again for even coating. Once they're just about to your desired level of toastiness (remember, I like my croutons a little chewy, so in my picture, they aren't really crunchy yet) add the cheese and toss until it melts onto the croutons (be careful not to let too much melt onto the pan; it can burn pretty quickly).

Total time

about 10 minutes... be patient while waiting for them to toast; you don't want to burn them!

Yields

As much bread as you throw in there

Cleanup rating 2/5

You'll have a mildly greasy pan, but if you don't let anything burn, it'll be a breeze to clean. You don't even have a bowl/bag to deal with like you do with my other croutons!

Difficulty rating 3/10

If being patient is difficult for you, this is a little difficult. And you need to keep an eye on them; don't turn away for too long or something (bread, cheese, seasonings) might burn.

Flavor rating 8/10

YUM. It's hard to go wrong with butter, bread, and cheese (hey, that actually does sound pretty French... just add some wine!).

Adjustability: medium

You'll notice I didn't specify seasonings. Honestly, I made this a little while ago and can't remember what I used. I know there was garlic powder involved, because there always is. And I'm pretty sure I used my Parisian spice blend (...French) which has some dry leafy seasonings in there, and I was concerned about burning. But use whatever bread, spices, and cheese you want! Add other things! Leave out the cheese!

Make it with...

In the bonus photo, you'll see the croutons were their own individual side dish. You could put them on a salad like normal croutons, or make them smaller and use them in a Grenobloise style dish (that's why I learned it in France... we made skate Grenobloise, with capers and croutons and lemon juice). You could also just make them as a snack. Put some of these next to a cheese plate and glass of wine? Perfection.

Bonus photo:

Made them with sauteed chicken with red wine mushroom "relish,"
garlic mashed potatoes, and peas.

Croutons

My grandma (mom's mom) made the best homemade croutons. This is not her recipe. In fact, I don't think I have her recipe. But it's not the same if she didn't make them, y'know? These are my croutons... and they're rarely the same twice in a row, so it's one of those vague recipes.

Croutons

Ingredients

bread (I like baguettes for this)

olive oil

seasonings (these have garlic powder, paprika, shallot-pepper seasoning, and salt)

Equipment

foil, baking sheet, oven, bowl

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F. (I like my croutons a little chewy. If you like crispier croutons, change that to 425F.) Cube your bread and put into the bowl. (Smaller cubes = crispier croutons.) Drizzle with olive oil; toss until evenly coated. Sprinkle with seasonings; toss until evenly coated. Spread evenly on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 15-30 minutes (check on them periodically; baking time is entirely up to you and your crunchiness preferences).

Yields

Depends on how much you cut up. I used half a demi-baguette to make what you see above.

Total time

20-30 minutes, depending on how long you want them to bake

Cleanup rating 1/5

Clean the bowl, toss the foil.

Difficulty rating 3/10

I was going to make it a 2/10 but then I remembered that one time I nearly cut off a finger because the knife slipped when I was cutting the bread, and I was very thankful that I'm terrible about sharpening my knives. So, you know... be careful with your knife. I'm serious.

Flavor rating 9/10

You can make them exactly the way you want, as far as seasoning, doneness, and size are concerned, and I love that. Plus they taste fresh, as opposed to the pre-packaged ones that now taste like over-flavored cardboard to me.

Adjustability: high

Cut them smaller or bigger, bake them less time or more, use whatever seasonings you want, add cheese or some other topping, use a different bread like cheese bread or jalapeno bread or olive bread or rye bread... go totally nuts on these things.

Make it with...

Well, I traditionally just put them on salads, but they make a great snack on their own, too. When I was in Paris last summer, we went to a cooking class where we made skate Grenobloise-style, which calls for lemon juice, capers, and croutons to garnish the skate, so that's something I had never done with croutons before. (Hers were cooked in butter in a skillet, too... but stay tuned for a recipe for croutons like that soon!)

Leftovers Update: Honey-Beer Bread

Delicious though it was on the first night, this stuff does not hold up. I'd recommend making it for some kind of dinner party or a large dinner where it will all be eaten within a few hours of coming out of the oven. It got really tough overnight (not necessarily dry, but the top and edges are an ordeal).

I'm going to look into the cooking science of the recipe though, because I feel like I can fix this somehow. If anyone knows something that might be helpful, let me know!

Honey-Beer Bread

This is a total deviation from the kind of thing I usually make, so it was very exciting! I don't do a lot of baking, but I plan to expand my horizons in that field, starting here, with honey-beer bread.

Honey-Beer Bread

Ingredients
3 cups flour
2 T white sugar
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
2 T honey
1 (12-oz) bottle of beer (I used a Carolina blonde)
4 T (half a stick) butter, melted (divided in half)

Equipment
loaf pan (pictured above)
oven
whisk
mixing bowl

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350F. Put your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in a mixing bowl and give them a quick whisk. Add the beer and honey (it's a lot easier if you microwave the honey really quickly... I went with 10 seconds inside the plastic bear and everything was fine) and stir until mixed thoroughly. Pour half of your melted butter into your loaf pan (turn the pan until the bottom is coated). Pour in your batter (this action is more like "move the batter into the pan" because it's not very liquidy; it's kinda sticky) and then pour the rest of your butter on top. Bake for about an hour (until you can stick a knife in the middle and it comes out clean).

Yields
A loaf.

Total time
A little over an hour.
The prep work takes no time at all and it bakes for an hour.

Cleanup rating 3/5
I haven't had to clean the loaf pan yet, but I had some sticking issues (perhaps I should have greased the pan better?) so I anticipate a little scrubbing. The batter is sticky, though, so the mixing bowl and my wooden spoon were easy to clean (it's sticky in that way where you can just pull off all the pieces, not sticky in the way where you can't get it off of anything).

Difficulty rating 2/10
If you can measure accurately, mix with a spoon, and listen for a timer, you can make this.

Flavor rating 6/10
I really like this... but it has room for improvement. It's kind of hard to cut (it's a little crumbly, as seen in the photos below) and a little tough on the bottom/sides (which may have to do with the aforementioned pan-greasing problem). But the actual flavor is spot-on, and goes really well with my next post, cinnamon honey butter.

More photos:

Dry ingredients = big pile of white powder, which is basically what is
outside on this snow day!

Batter in the pan, waiting for the melted butter (right) to be poured on top.

Pictured: crumbly (but not dry) bread.

Paired with cinnamon honey butter... yum!