Chef Mik's Rustic Italian Bread Olive and Rosemary Loaves

This is a great bread, if I have a starter on hand I will through that in the mixer and be on my way, in this case however I making sort of cheat starter, but it works great to so not to worry, Italian bread is very similar to French and can be prepared very simply with just flour, water, yeast and salt, though typically some form of a starter is employed, in either case filtered water is recommended, this is a great base for breads using other flavorings such as in this case rosemary or olives

Steam is important and you can do this by boiling water and pouring some into a stainless steal bowl placed in the oven, although another great way to get good steam is if you have a pizza stone you use for baking at home after you put the bread and the water in the oven just before you close the door pore some water onto the pizza stone and close the oven door quickly, that said there are many parts of the oven that may not be rust proof such as the springs in the door so just keep that in mind if you have any concerns about your ovens durability and the extra amount of moisture generated by pouring water onto the hot stone

Shopping List

Milk

Yeast

Water

Sugar

Unbleached Bread flour

Semolina flour

Olives

Rosemary

Salt

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

My Mad Method

If you are using a starter proceed on to step 4, if you do not have a ready made starter on hand start by mixing 6 dl water, 1.5 dl milk, 2 TBS sugar (or other sweetener), and 3.5 tsp instant yeast

Add 1 L unbleached bread flour, and mix to combine

This will be quite lose that’s fine, store in a warm place for 1.5-2 hours

It has now expanded by about 3 fold and is light and bubbly; this means the yeast is very happy

Add 5 dl bread flour (or as needed), 2.5 dl semolina flour, 1 tsp salt, and 4 TBS extra virgin olive oil, it will be ready when it just cleans the bowl, when testing is nice, smooth, and not to sticky or cling to the bowl when removing it, add flavoring if any and divide into 4 medium loaves or 2 large loaves

Brush the bottom or the loaves with extra virgin olive oil, and place on a sheet pan covered with parchment paper and corn meal, cover with a cloth and proof 30 minutes longer in a warm place

These will now be rosemary bread

These will now be olive bread

Here are the loaves ready to go in the oven they are now twice the size, score them and spray with water, bake in a 225c preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until nicely browned and if taped sound hollow

When ready cool them on a wire wrack

Rustic Olive Bread

When ready cool them on a wire wrack

Rustic Rosemary Bread