Day 33: Olive Bread - Monastery Cookbook - Ελιόψωμο - April 4, 2014

We like using our "Greek Monastery Cookbook" and have shared our experiences with you on several blog entries (here, When we think about olive bread, we often think of a yeast bread with black olives.

Today's recipe, an olive bread was not made with yeast, nor was it made with black olives! In fact, calling this a bread is almost a misnomer and should be called a quick bread or a muffin. It was delightful, moist, and fluffy like a muffin and had a savoury flavour and slight saltiness from the green olives.

As you read through the ingredient list and are gathering the things you need, you will notice the orange juice on the list.  This did not seem right at first because usually olives and orange juice would not pair well.  However, in this recipe, the sweetness of the orange juice really complemented the saltiness of the olives.  Of course, you could rinse the olives or soak them to remove some of the salt, but the orange juice did counteract the saltiness well, so rinsing the olives was unnecessary.  This helped us keep the process simple.

To make this even easier and more simple, as well as an overall nice recipe for us, making this bread took about seven minutes to gather ingredients, mix it all together, and get it into the oven.  That's it!  We are always impressed with quick and easy recipes that taste delicious and give results that seem like the product was a lot of work.

For this recipe, you will need the following:

1 cup green olives
1 1/4 cups orange juice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups water

Start by combining the dry ingredients in one bowl.  Make sure to include the flour, baking powder, and the baking soda.  Mix these together to combine, assuring that the baking powder and soda is well distributed throughout the flour.

Now, add the water and stir the mixture five or six times, then add the orange juice and mix well.

Once the batter is mixed well, add the olives and stir to distribute the olives.  Allow this mixture to sit for five minutes before pouring it into the prepared baking dish.

The baking pan that you use should be coated with oil and then dusted with flour, or greased with vegetable shortening, or pan spray (like we used).   We photographed the oil thinking that would be the best route, but ended up using the pan spray after seeing the consistency of the batter.  Pour the mixture into the greased baking pan and bake this at 400º F (about 205º C) for 45 minutes until the centre is firm and dry.  Check it with a toothpick as  you would a traditional cake, or feel the bread with your hand and make sure the middle of the bread bounces back when pressed.  You will also see that the bread will turn a golden colour, and the edges of the bread will pull away from the sides of the baking dish (as will any quick bread).  Allow this to cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before cutting.

"Fire and water do not mix, neither can you mix judgment of others with the desire to repent. If a man commits a sin before you at the very moment of his death, pass no judgment, because the judgment of God is hidden from men. It has happened that men have sinned greatly in the open but have done greater deeds in secret, so that those who would disparage them have been fooled, with smoke instead of sunlight in their eyes."

St. John Climacus

Source of quote:http://theodorakis.net/orthodoxquotescomplete.htm