Bread Baking
There’s nothing quite like baking (or eating) a loaf of bread. It’s a wonderful process of watching a few basic ingredients be combined to create something truly delicious. And then, you get to taste your beautiful creation! We also love the process of perfecting a bread recipe, as we get to do it over and over again, making small adjustments like more or less salt, different add-ins, or oven temperature changes. Once you get practicing when it comes to bread, it quickly becomes second nature and even more fun when you gain knowledge and intuition. Eventually, you can even throw together a loaf without a recipe in front of you, just by knowing what the dough should look and feel like. There’s no doubt it’s a favorite baking category of ours to work with, so today’s recipe is for a delicious pesto, sundried tomato, and olive bread!
Olive Bread = Hyggebrød
We would call this recipe a fun riff on our hyggebrød, which you can find a recipe for here. Why? Well, it’s a super comforting loaf of bread that stands entirely on its own without butter or any other toppings. That doesn’t mean you can’t top it with anything, but it doesn’t need it! If you’re an avid bread baker but getting bored of making plain loaves and want to incorporate some fun flavors, this is perfect for you. For context, “hygge” is a Danish word that best translates to comfort or coziness, and when you bake and share this loaf with your friends and family, hygge is exactly the emotion you’ll be feeling!
Savory but Versatile
Now, you may be surprised to hear that a slice of this loaf is good on its own without any toppings. But it’s true! It’s so fluffy and soft thanks to pesto and milk in the dough, and it also stays pretty moist because of the add-ins, including olives and sundried tomatoes. The little pine nuts, olives, and tomatoes are sprinkled throughout each slice, giving it lovely texture and bursts of flavor throughout. So when we say you don’t need to add anything to it to make it delicious, we mean it! However, that doesn’t mean butter or cheese on top wouldn’t still be tasty, so take our advice with a grain of salt 😉. You can also use it as the base for a sandwich, which I’m sure would be so yummy.
Mediterranean Flavors
As I mentioned already, we have packed this olive bread with flavor. The pesto in the dough makes it super fluffy by adding a bit of oil and it contributes a nice subtle basil flavor. Then, the sundried tomatoes and olives sprinkled throughout provide plenty of punches of salty flavor and combine perfectly with the flavor from the pesto. The pine nuts give a mild and sweet flavor throughout, as well as a textural little crunch. We were inspired by some of our favorite Mediterranean flavors, and we especially love Kalamata olives, so we wanted to incorporate this into a loaf. We hope you try it out – keep reading to learn how you can make it!
Ingredients
For the basic dough, you’ll need yeast, sugar, milk, water, salt, and flour. Then, for this specific combination of flavors, you’ll need pesto, sundried tomatoes, olives, and pine nuts. You can mix it up – we use green pesto but you could use red, we use Kalamata olives but you could use another type. We love pine nuts but walnuts would be a delicious choice too. I also think adding a cheese like manchego or gouda would give even more rich flavor to this loaf. In terms of the bread itself, you can replace the milk with water to make the recipe vegan.
How to Make This Olive Bread
Now, let’s go through how to make the bread. First, combine the yeast with warm milk and water and the sugar. Let this bloom. Separately, mix together the salt and flour, then add the wet ingredients to this once the yeast has come alive. Add the pesto and knead this for a few minutes. Then, put in the pine nuts, sundried tomatoes, and olives and continue to knead. Cover and let this rise once until about doubled in size. Following the steps in the recipe below, shape this into a loaf and let it rise again in a loaf tin. Bake and let it cool before slicing it up. Enjoy!
Pesto, Sundried Tomato, and Olive Bread
Ingredients
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 100 ml milk
- 100 ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- 400 grams bread flour or all purpose flour (you may need at least 50g more, depending on how oily the pesto is!)
- 100 grams pesto (we use storebought!)
- 75 grams sundried tomatoes, chopped into smaller pieces (we prefer tomatoes in oil)
- 75 grams olives, chopped into smaller pieces or halved (we use kalamata, but feel free to use your favorite!)
- 75 grams pine nuts (reserve a few to sprinkle over the top!)
Instructions
- Heat up the milk and water, either in the microwave or in a saucepan, until it is "fingervarm" (finger warm), meaning it should feel warm to the touch but not hot. You don’t want to kill the yeast! Add the yeast and sugar and stir to dissolve. Let it rest 5-10 minutes until it begins to froth and bubble a little bit. (If your yeast doesn’t do anything, it may be expired. Check the expiration date on the package and start over with new yeast!)
- Add the salt and flour to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the water/milk/sugar/yeast mixture.
- Knead for about 2 minutes until the dough starts to come together. Note: you may have to add a little more water or a little more flour if your dough is either too dry or too sticky.
- Add the fillings – pesto, sundried tomatoes, olives, and pine nuts, reserving a few pine nuts to sprinkle over the top. Knead for about 8 more minutes until evenly distributed and the dough is soft and smooth. You can add a little more flour too if the fillings make the dough stickier! Adjust until the dough releases from the edges of the bowl and there are no dry bits at the bottom of the bowl!
- Leave to rise in a warm place for ~45 minutes to an hour or until doubled in size.
- Prepare a loaf tin by oiling the bottom and/or adding a sheet of parchment paper across the long edge of the tin, so that the paper hangs over the edge for easy removal!
- Once it has doubled in size, remove the dough from the bowl onto a clean work surface. Press the dough into a rough rectangle, no wider than the length of your loaf pan.
- Roll up the dough tightly (along the short edge of the rectangle) until you have a log.
- Pinch together the seam at the bottom of the dough log. Now place the seam on your work surface and gently roll the dough log in circles to create tension and help close the seam.
- Place the dough log into the prepared loaf tin.
- Cover the dough and allow to rise for another 45 minutes in a warm place until doubled in size. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350 F (176 C).
- Once the loaf has risen, remove the cover and brush the top with milk.
- Sprinkle pine nuts over the top of the loaf (optional).
- Bake for around 30 minutes or until evenly golden brown; you can also tap the loaf and if it sounds hollow, it should be baked all the way through! If you're not baking in a convection oven, it may need 10 more minutes to bake all the way through.
I made your pesto sundried tomatoes and olives loaf and I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the results! WOW!!! Thank you!
So so happy to hear it! This is actually one of my favorites out of our recent recipes, so I’m glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for your comment and for using our recipe 🙂