Real Acme Olive Bread on the left, Acme Olive Bread II on the right.
Today’s Acme Olive Bread II recipe is a step forward in trying to duplicating the original, which we will never completely succeed at because we don’t access to the same olives and marinating brine. We upped the amount of olive oil and reduced the oven temp, both to create a more tender crumb. Makes one 2 lb loaf.
Ingredients:
125g starter, refreshed and lively, made with all purpose flour
75g whole wheat flour (to offset white starter since Acme uses whole wheat starter)
300g purified water
425g all purpose flour
3 T olive oil (use a good quality fruity variety)
1 T diastatic malt powder
2 t kosher salt
1 c olives (we used mostly Kalamata, some castelvestrano), coarsely chopped
2 T brine from the olives
Two olive breads compared. Ours is a bit darker with the whole wheat; we might dial it back next time.
Method: combine starter, water and flours and mix with a spoon; autolyze 30 minutes or more. Add diastatic malt powder, salt, olives and olive oil and knead 7 minutes or so until a gluten window develops, then knead a couple minutes longer. C0ver the dough in the bowl and rest 4 hours, during which time you should see moderate expansion. Transfer to a ziplock bag and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, take the dough out of the ziplock bag (when cold it will come out easily vs sticking) and shape into a ball on counter. Rest 20 minutes or longer then transfer to a banneton which has been heavily dusted with rice flour. Cover and proof until it starts to rise but pressing a finger into the dough causes it to come back slowly, not immediately.
Half an hour before you expect the dough to be ready, preheat oven to 460 degrees with cast iron dutch oven inside. (Heat the lid as well, on a separate oven shelf.) Dust the bottom of the dutch oven (handling it carefully with oven mitt) with polenta then flip the dough out of the banneton and transfer to dutch oven. Cover and bake 15 minutes, then uncover, reduce heat to 430 degrees and bake another 25 minutes or so until the bread makes a nice “thump” when you tap the bottom and internal temperature reaches 206 degrees. Cool to room temperature before enjoying.
