FFwD Cheese and Olive Bread

Friday, June 14, 2013


I think I might be suffering from writer's block. I have no idea what to write about today's French Fridays with Dorie recipe.

It is a bread. That is obvious from the picture - I hope!.

It is very quick to make. No kneading is needed, no waiting for it to rise. Just whisk the dry and the wet ingredients together, mix it up a bit with a rubber spatula and put it in a bread pan.

It has grated cheese and olives inside it, as well as eggs, baking powder, olive tapenade and lemon zest.

It doesn't sound like any other bread recipe I have tried or heard of before!

Maybe it is my fault. I am not a bread person! Oh! Blasphemy. A food blogger who is impartial to bread! Yeap that's me! I apologise... gluten and yeast are definitely not my best friends.

Yet, I decided to bake this strange bread that has eggs in it!. Dorie calls it "not quite a back-of-the-box recipe" meaning that this is the offspring of a recipe created by a French cheese company to better promote their product, and her own creative additions and tweaks.
I have to admit I very much like this approach to cooking and recipe development! Creative adaptation, experimentation and substitution is what I do most of the time with the recipes I use for my everyday cooking some of which - the most successful that is - I post here. And off course I have done it here as well. I used Greek Graviera cheese from Crete instead of Swiss Gruyère and almond milk instead of regular milk.

This bread was definitely a revelation. The taste is really exceptional but I believe that if I was to make it again I would use it as a pre-dinner starter paired with a glass of sparkling wine or even a medium bodied red. It's taste and texture are too intense for it to be relegated into the dinner table bread basket!

To see how my fellow Doristas liked this recipe click here!

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Cheese and Olive Bread
Serves 12
Dorie's original recipe can be found here
Ingredients
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup almond milk
6 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons black olive tapenade
1 1/2 cups grated Graviera cheese from Crete
2/3 cup pitted black olives, coarsely chopped
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Procedure
Preheat your oven to 400F/200C.  Butter a 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch  (21-x-11cm) non-stick loaf pan.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.  In another smaller bowl lightly beat the eggs and whisk in the almond milk, olive oil and tapenade.  Pour the liquid ingredients over the flour mixture and stir gently to blend. Using a rubber spatula fold in the cheese, olives and grated lemon zest.  Pour the batter into the pan.

Bake the loaf for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 375F/180C.  Continue to bake the loaf for another 35 minutes, until it’s puffed and.  Transfer the pan to a cooling rack, let it rest about 5 minutes, then turn it out.  Allow the loaf to come to room temperature before you slice it.

Enjoy!!