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Sourdough
olive bread
recipe
75% Hydration Bread

Sourdough

Reading Time: 8 minutes

A
bout the last year I’ve
been playing and
enjoying the game
Assassin’s Creed
Odyssey which is set
in ancient Greece. In the countries
around the Mediterranean sea they
eat a very different diet than we do
in the Nordic countries, and that has
always fascinated and inspired me.
This is my recipe for a delicious
sourdough olive bread.

The bread has a healthy amount of

Kalamata olives and is spiced with
dried herbs that grow naturally in
the region. We’re using basil, thyme,
oregano and rosemary.

Higher hydration then before

This bread is a step up in hydration
from my sourdough bread for
beginners that has a hydration of
70%. That bread is a bit more
forgiving if you don’t get the gluten
all the way, but this higher
hydration helps with getting a bread
that will stay fresh longer.

A breads hydration is
the ratio of the total
water in regards to the
total flour in a
percentage

I chose to raise the hydration with

five percent. It seems like a good
place to start, so this bread is made
with 75% hydration.

The levain in this sourdough

olive bread recipe
To make this sourdough olive bread
recipe you need an active
sourdough starter. If you don’t have
one you can learn how to make one.

We’ll start the recipe by making a

preferment, a so-called leavin. In
reality it’s a new version of your
sourdough starter, that will die off
when it’s baked with the bread.

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The reason we make a levain

instead of just using starter directly
in the dough, is that we can time it
exactly when the starter is the most
opportune moment in it’s
development, namely when it’s at its
peak.

There’s a large part of whole-grain

wheat flour in this levain, and that’s
because then there is more “food”
for the yeast in your starter.

The formula for the levain is this

way:

BAKER'S
WEIGHT INGREDIENT PERCENTAGE

Bread
50g 50.0%
Flour

Whole-
Grain
50g 50.0%
Wheat
Flour

100g Water 100.0%

Starter
50g (100% 50.0%
Hydration)

The process is to build the levain in

the morning, then letting it grow to
its peak. My starter can easily grow
to triple. You know your own
starter.

Then you do an autolyse, which

means “self mixing”. You mix water
and flour in the recipe, and let it rest
until the levain is ready.

This steps helps the flour is 100%

hydrated and will kickstart the
gluten development in the dough,
thus making the later steps in the
recipe much easier.

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We make a bit more levain than we

need, so that we have enough for
when we mix the dough.

The formula in this

sourdough olive bread recipe
This recipe describes the breads
formula.

When you look at the table below,

you may say that it says that the
water is 62.3%, but you said that the
hydration is 75%, but you have to
remember to add the water and the
flour from the levain.

The part of the levain that’s included

in the dough is 250g. That means it
contains 50g bread flour, 50g whole-
grain wheat flour, 50g starter
(which is 25g flour and 25g water)
and 100g water.

That brings the total flour weight up

to 988g (704g + 159g + 50g + 50g +
25g) and the total water weight up
to 741g (616g + 100g + 25 g).

Then we just divide the water

weight by the flour weight and
multiply with 100. Voila. 75%.

If you want to change the hydration,

it can be done through my bread
calculator.

BAKER'S
WEIGHT INGREDIENT PERCENTAGE

Bread
704g 81.6%
Flour

Whole-
Grain
159g 18.4%
Wheat
Flour

616g Water 71.4%

21g Salt 2.4%

250g Olives 29.0%

1g Basil 0.1%

0g Thyme 0.0%

0g Rosemary 0.0%

0g Oregano 0.0%

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What type of olives should I

use in this sourdough olive
bread recipe?
Culinarily there are three types of
olives. They all come from the same
tree, but it’s about when they are
picked.Gyártófüggetlen
teawebáruház
They are:

Green olives – they are

picked when the olive
fruit has the right size,
but before it ripens.
Half-ripe olives – these
olives has started the
ripening process. The
skin has started changing
color, but the flesh is still
green. The colors vary
from green to several
shades between red and
brown.
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Black olives – fully

ripened olives. Both the
skin and the flesh are in
the color nuances
between brown and
black.

I chose some delicious black

Kalamata olives that I brought in a
specialty store in Copenhagen called
“Stig’s Olives”. By the best olives that
you can find, it’ll make a difference
in the final result.

Baking with steam

To give the bread great oven spring
you will need to bake the bread with
steam.

There are several ways to do this:

Use the steam function of

your oven
Use a pan with a rolled
up towel in the bottom of
your oven while baking
Baking the bread in a
dutch oven or combo
cooker.

Whatever way you choose to use, do

not skip baking with steam. You
won’t get the right result, but all of
the above methods will give great
results.

Conclusion
This sourdough olive bread recipe
has a relatively high hydration. Not
so hard that it is impossible to work
with the dough, but you need to
know the techniques to get a good
result.

The crumb is open and full of

delicious olives. The herbs
accentuate the Mediterranean vibe
and perfectly suits the earthy notes
from the olives.

The crust is super crispy and has a

fabulous smell. This is wonderful
bread as a side for almost any
Mediterranean dish and many
dishes in middle eastern cuisine.

It’s a fabulous bread. I hope you’ll

try to make it.

Please share on social media

This is my recipe for sourdough
olive bread. I hope you will try to
make it.

If you make it and post it to

Instagram, please tag me as
@foodgeek.dk so I can see what you
made. That would make me very
happy.

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Ad links! The links in the recipe for

ingredients or tools are affiliate
links, which means that I get
commission if you purchase the
product!

Sourdough
Olive Bread
Course: Dinner, Lunch,
Snack
Cuisine: Greek
Keyword: greek, olives,
sourdough bread
Prep: 1 hour
Cook: 1 hour 30 minutes
Hævning: 12 hours
Total: 14 hours 30
minutes
Servings: 2 bread
Calories: 1966kcal
Author: Sune Trudslev

Nutrition Facts
Sourdough Olive Bread

Amount Per Serving (1 brød)

Calories 1966 Calories from Fat 252
% Daily Value*
Fat 28g 43%
Saturated Fat 3g 19%
Sodium 6043mg 263%
Carbohydrates 367g 122%
Fiber 25g 104%
Sugar 2g 2%
Protein 62g 124%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie
diet.

A fabulous sourdough bread

with divine olives all the way
through the crumb. It's hard
not to love this bread.

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

Equipment
weck jars
bench scraper
oval bannetons
combo cooker

Ingredients
Levain
60 g bread flour
60 g whole-grain wheat
flour
120 g water
60 g mature sourdough
starter

The dough
704 g bread flour
159 g whole-grain wheat
flour
616 g water
21 g salt
250 g levain

Extras
250 g kalamata olives
2 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary

Instructions
Make the levain – in
the morning
1. Mix all the ingredients for
the levain thoroughly.
2. Put the levain in a see-
through container with
room for the levain to
triple.
3. Put an elastic band
around the container and
line it up with the top of
the levain
4. Put the levain somewhere
warm.

Autolyse
1. Mix 704g bread flour, 159g
whole-grain wheat flour,
all the spices and all of the
water except 50g that you
should reserve for mixing
in the salt later on.
2. Leave covered until the
levain has peaked. Mine
can grow to triple the size,
but you know your own
starter.

Mix the dough

1. Mix the salt into 50 grams
of the reserved water
from earlier and add it to
the autolysed flour.
2. Pour 250g levain over the
autolysed flour.
3. Mix the dough by pushing
the fingers through the
dough and stretch the
dough up and folding it in
over itself.
4. Keep going until the
starter is properly
dispersed in the dough.
This may take 5-10
minutes.
5. Leave the dough covered
by a damp dish towel for
30 minutes

Bulk fermentation –
Around noon
1. In the beginning of the
bulk you need to do three
sets of stretch and folds.
2. You'll do a set the
following way:
3. Wet your hands.
4. Grab the dough in the
back of the dough, stretch
it upwards as far as it goes
without breaking.
5. Fold the dough down
towards yourself.
6. Turn the bowl a quarter
turn and repeat.
7. Do two more so that
you've stretched and
folded the dough from all
four sides.
8. During second set of
stretch and fold, add ¼ of
the olives before doing the
stretch and fold.
9. After the last stretch and
fold, do a windowpane
test, to see if the gluten
development is good. If
not add more sets spaced
out by 30 minutes as
needed.