Olive Rosemary Bread: The Complete Recipe and Technique

Olive rosemary bread pairs a crusty, lean dough with pockets of briny olive and fragrant herbs. The goal is to distribute the inclusions without working the dough more than it needs. A poolish supplies part of the flour and water and gives the dough a longer fermentation before the final mix.

When to Add the Olives

Give the dough some initial gluten development, then handle the olives gently. You can fold them in after mixing or during an early stretch-and-fold. There is no rule that every inclusion belongs in the last fold.

For example, King Arthur’s Rustic Olive Sourdough Bread folds olives into the kneaded dough before its first rise. That is a different formula containing both starter and commercial yeast. In Martin Philip’s preserved lemon and olive bread demonstration, the inclusions enter at the second bowl fold, with more folds afterward. Both illustrate why timing depends on the method.

For this dough, an early fold after initial strengthening gives you time to finish distribution with later gentle folds. Scatter the drained olives and rosemary over the dough, lift an edge over them, rotate the bowl, and repeat. Avoid squeezing the olive pieces. Stop stretching when the dough resists or tears; let it relax before working it again.

The Formula and Hydration

The flour-and-water base is lean: it contains no added butter, eggs or sugar. The olives themselves contribute oil, moisture and salt.

Total flour is 800g, including the poolish. Total measured water is 560g, so the hydration is 70%. This follows the total-flour convention explained in King Arthur’s baker’s percentage reference.

Olive moisture and residual brine can change how the dough feels, but there is no dependable conversion from 200g olives to a particular increase in dough hydration. Water held in olive flesh is not equivalent to pouring the same weight of water into the mixing bowl. Drain and blot consistently so successive batches are comparable.

A poolish contains equal weights of flour and water plus a small amount of commercial yeast. It develops flavor and some acidity; it is not an acidity-free alternative to sourdough. See King Arthur’s preferment reference and our pre-ferment guide.

Ingredients: Two Boules

Every percentage uses the same 800g total-flour denominator. The poolish contains 25% of the flour and weighs approximately 400g. The complete dough weighs approximately 1,591g, or 795g per piece before baking.

Use a scale precise enough to measure the small yeast quantity. A pinch is not a consistent substitute for 0.5g.

Prepare the Inclusions

Use Kalamata olives for a pronounced flavor, or choose another olive you enjoy. Check for pits even when the package says pitted. Drain, blot away surface brine, and halve or coarsely chop. Smaller pieces are a valid choice; they do not automatically turn to paste.

Strip the rosemary leaves from the woody stems and chop. The 12g here means leaves, without stems. Olive brands vary in saltiness, so the 16g dough salt is this formula’s starting quantity, not a claim that every olive bread needs exactly that amount regardless of its inclusions.

Equipment

A scale, large bowl, bench scraper, two bannetons or towel-lined bowls, a suitable Dutch oven, and a lame are useful. Hand mixing avoids relying on a stand mixer’s capacity for this batch.

Method

1. Ripen the Poolish

Combine 200g flour, 200g water and 0.5g instant yeast. Cover and leave overnight. At a cool room temperature, 12–16 hours is a planning estimate; warmer conditions can bring it to maturity sooner.

Look for abundant bubbles and a surface that has risen and is just beginning to recede. A poolish that has collapsed substantially is past its ideal maturity and can affect dough strength and fermentation; it is not simply the same ingredient with a little extra sourness.

2. Rest the Main Flour and Water

Combine 600g flour with 360g water, cover and rest about 30 minutes. This autolyse hydrates the flour before the final mix. The mixture will be fairly firm because the remaining water is in the poolish.

3. Mix

Work in all the poolish, 16g salt and 2g yeast until evenly combined and moderately elastic. By hand, alternate squeezing through the dough with folding it over itself; give it short rests if it is difficult to work.

If using a mixer, follow its dough-hook speed, duration and capacity limits. In particular, KitchenAid specifies speed 2 for yeast dough; a generic instruction to knead on medium speed is unsuitable. A dough temperature around 76–78°F is a useful planning target, so adjust water temperature to your room, flour and mixing method rather than always using 80°F water.

4. Bulk Ferment and Incorporate

Cover the dough. During early bulk fermentation, check at roughly 30-minute intervals and fold as needed for strength. After initial development, incorporate the olives and rosemary gently as described above. Further folds can finish distribution; four sets are not mandatory.

Allow roughly 3–4 hours for bulk as a planning estimate, including the folds. Finish when the dough is noticeably expanded and aerated, with sufficient strength to shape. A fixed 20–30% rise is not a reliable endpoint for this commercial-yeast poolish formula. Temperature, yeast activity and dough development affect the schedule; our fermentation guide explains those variables.

5. Divide and Shape

Divide into two equal pieces, preshape loosely, cover, and let relax for about 20 minutes. Shape each into a boule without crushing the olive pieces. Use enough bench flour to prevent sticking while retaining some surface traction. Do not force a tight skin if it starts tearing.

Transfer seam-up to well-floured bannetons. Rice flour or a rice-and-wheat flour mixture can help reduce sticking. See the shaping guide for hand positioning.

6. Proof

Cover and allow the loaves to become puffy and aerated. A room-temperature proof might take around 1–1.5 hours, but use the dough’s expansion and feel as well as the poke test. A gentle indentation that returns slowly can be useful evidence; a single poke is not a definitive diagnosis.

For an overnight option, refrigerate covered and assess the dough before baking. Cooling is gradual and fermentation continues while the dough cools. A loaf that is still underproofed in the morning needs more proofing time; a sufficiently proofed loaf can bake cold. King Arthur’s refrigeration guide explains these scheduling limits.

7. Score and Bake

For the covered bake, start with an oven setting of 475°F. Follow the pot manufacturer’s instructions for preheating, maximum temperature and lid hardware. If empty preheating is allowed, allow the pot to heat thoroughly; 45 minutes is an estimate for this method.

Turn out and score the loaf with a simple pattern, working around exposed olive pieces. A deep slash does not correct underproofing; give the dough enough proof before loading.

Use oven gloves and a loading method suitable for the hot pot. If using parchment or a reusable liner, check its rating: ordinary Reynolds parchment is rated to 425°F, below this oven setting. Do not assume that covering the pot overrides the liner’s limit.

Start with 25 minutes covered, then about 20–25 minutes uncovered, adjusting for your oven and loaf. Look for a well-browned crust without burning the exposed herbs or olives. Reduce the heat if the crust is darkening too fast. Color, the firmness of the loaf and a baked interior matter together; an olive pocket is not a reliable place to assess crumb doneness.

If you have one pot, keep the second loaf cool while the first bakes and reassess it before loading. It may not need the same remaining proof time.

8. Cool Completely

Remove the loaf to a rack and let it cool completely before slicing. Large boules can need several hours. Cutting a warm loaf can give a misleadingly gummy impression. Check that the center has cooled as well as the crust.

Variations and Sourdough Math

Different olives and herbs: Green olives and thyme make a useful variation. Drain consistently and adjust herb quantity to taste. Canned black olives are also usable if you prefer their milder flavor. There is no universal dough-salt deduction for oil-cured olives; compare the particular products.

Tomatoes or focaccia: Additional ingredients change the dough, and a sheet-pan bake changes its thickness and timing. Use a complete tomato-bread formula or the focaccia guide for an appropriate pan size and bake schedule rather than transferring a boule’s instructions unchanged.

Converting the flour and water to sourdough: To keep the same 800g total flour and 560g total water while using 200g ripe, 100% hydration starter, omit the poolish and both additions of commercial yeast. Use 700g flour plus 460g water in the main dough, along with the 200g starter, 16g salt, 200g olives and 12g rosemary. The starter supplies the other 100g flour and 100g water. Prefermented flour is then 12.5% of total flour.

That is a formulation calculation, not a tested sourdough schedule. Starter vigor and temperature determine fermentation, so do not carry over the poolish timings or assume a fixed extra hour. For a fully specified alternative, follow the King Arthur olive sourdough recipe as written; it uses commercial yeast as well as starter.

Troubleshooting

Crushed olives or streaked crumb: Reduce vigorous handling after adding the olives and blot off surface brine. Staining alone does not prove that you added them at the wrong fold.

Uneven distribution: Scatter the inclusions over a broad area and use gentle folds to distribute them. Check the dough’s strength and your shaping; do not assume every cluster at the bottom means excessive hydration.

Spreading dough: Check flour absorption, mixing and folding, fermentation progress, and how much brine entered the bowl. If repeated batches with the same ingredients are too slack, adjust the measured water gradually and record the change.

Too salty or too mild: Check both the measured dough salt and the particular olives. Choose olives you like eating rather than relying on a blanket rule about the packaging style.