Olive Cheese Bread

Plenty of people have been baking during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what they’re baking is bread. The puff-’n’-stuff supermarket brand I once thought a bargain at $2.50 a loaf looks pretty expensive, now. 

Clues that home cooks are baking bread? 

• Flour and yeast have been in short supply since the crisis became part of our lives.

• New bread machines are hard to find. 

• Cast-iron Dutch ovens are also hard to find. Cast-iron Dutch ovens are essential for No-Knead Artisan Bread, which everyone wants to bake, just as everyone seems to have gone crazy over Sourdough Biscuits and Sourdough Bread. 

I recently made a 1-1/2 lb. (0.7 kg) loaf of Bread Machine Olive-Cheese Bread ... Wow! This is a bread machine recipe I’ll definitely make over and over again. It’s a winner that deserves 5 out of 5 stars. If you don’t have a bread machine, follow the traditional method for hand-made bread, taking care to add the wet and dry ingredients in exactly the order the traditional recipe calls for.

Bread Machine Olive-Cheese Bread:

1 c. (250 mL) water, room temperature

3 tbsp. (45 mL) olive oil

1-1/2 tbsp. (22 mL) granulated sugar

3/4 tsp. (3.75 mL) dried thyme

1-1/2 tsp. (7.5 mL) salt (see Note)

3 c. (750 mL) bread flour

2-1/4 tsp. (11.25 mL) yeast 

1/2 c. (250 mL) crumbled feta cheese, well drained 

6 tbsp. (90 mL) coarsely chopped green olives, well drained (see Flavor Note)

3 tbsp. (45 ml) chopped, commercially sun-dried tomatoes, well drained and blotted dry

3 tbsp. (45 mL) additional bread flour

Place water, olive oil, sugar, thyme, salt, and flour into loaf pan of bread machine. Set for white bread, medium crust. Press Start button. 

In medium bowl, stir together feta, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes, distributing evenly. When first kneading is finished or when first beeper of bread machine sounds, sprinkle feta, olives, and tomatoes with additional bread flour. Mix quickly but well, adding to dough in bread machine. The machine will do the rest, baking a perfect loaf of this delicious and interesting bread.

Note: Do not reduce salt!

Flavor Note: Pimiento-stuffed olives impart the most wonderful flavor and ribbons of color to this bread.