Olive Levain

A very short ingredients list and a lot of fermentation time leads to this olive sourdough bread: All wheat flour - mainly white and some whole grain - water, salt and olives is all that goes in here. No is yeast added, only wild yeast is doing the work. Because of that  it takes about 48 hours start to finish to make it - including making the sourdough from starter. Not exactly the German style bread I usually make, but at least I got the recipe from a German recipe book. ;-)

Sourdough

• 85g (3 oz) all purpose wheat flour
• 105ml (3 1/2 oz) water
• 8.5g (1/4 oz) wheat sourdough starter

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir well. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 16-18 hours.

Main Dough

• Sourdough
• 325g (11 3/8 oz) all purpose wheat flour
• 45g (1 1/2 oz)  whole grain wheat flour
• 185ml (6 1/2 oz) water
• 7g (1 tsp) salt
• 115g (4 oz) pitted black olives (I used Greek Kalamata)

Combine all ingredients - except for the salt - in a mixing bowl and stir. Then knead with a dough hook on low speed for about 18 minutes, or until the dough separates completely from the bowl. Add the salt and knead on low speed for another 3 minutes.

Let the dough rest for 2 1/2 hours, stretch and fold after 50 and 100 minutes: Stretch the dough into square shape with about 12"  sides, then fold the two edges on the sides 1/3 into the center and press in (so you get a 3-layer sandwich). Do the same for top and bottom edges. Stretch the dough out again and repeat two more times.

Form dough first into ball, then into elongated shape and transfer seam up into a well floured banneton. Place banneton in a lightly moisturized plastic bag and put into the refrigerator for 18 hours.

Take dough out of the fridge and let it acclimate for about 2 hours.

Meanwhile preheat oven to  240°C (465°F).

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and turn dough over onto it. Place on the middle rack of the oven and spray water onto the oven walls. Bake for 15 minutes, then open oven door briefly to let out steam and bake for another 30 minutes.

Let cool on the baking sheet for about 15 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely.

Original recipe (German language) on ketex.de.