These olive baguettes leavened with sourdough are truly spectacular. They have a touch of rye flour and lots of golden, crunchy crust to enjoy with bursts of flavor from the olives. The airy crumb can contain a lot of olive oil, and baguettes also pair well with soft cheeses like ricotta and burrata, or flakes of hard cheese like pecorino romano and grana padano. The recipe contains instructions for baking the baguettes on a stone or steel, as well as making them into demi baguettes and baking them in a closed container, such as our Hearth Baker. If you’re a fan of olive bread, you might also try our sourdough with olives and rosemary.
418 grams of dough each (including olives)
Often when I make baguettes I use Breadtopia’s all-purpose flour, which contains 10-10.5% protein and 0.56% ash. (You can read about ash levels Here.) This flour is similar to the traditional French baguette flour, T55, but I always combine it with other wheat flours for more flavor. For this recipe, I wanted the whole grain rye flour to add earthy, grassy flavors to complement the olives. Because rye has so little gluten strength and is so sticky, I instead used Breadtopia bread flour (13.5% protein) as the main flour and the dough was a breeze to handle. If you use a bread flour with less protein, you may need to reduce the water in the recipe.
Here’s a video showing a slightly unconventional method for shaping baguettes. I think it works well for beginners and people with less counter space to work with.
This video shows a traditional approach to shaping baguette on demi baguette (without olives). With this dough you can make four demi baguettes.
Be sure to check out the Photo gallery after the recipe.
These sourdough baguettes have a golden, crisp crust, a hint of earthy rye flavor and a burst of delicious olives. They’re perfect for dipping in olive oil or serving with your favorite cheeses.
Total time
1 hour and 15 minutes
Instructions
- Look at the photo gallery after the recipe to find out the desired dough consistency and leavening.
Mixing, Gluten Development, First Leavening
- These instructions are for using a stand mixer, but hand mixing is fine too.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all the ingredients except the olives. Mix on low speed for about 2 minutes, followed by medium speed for about 2 minutes. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 15-20 minutes (unplug and leave the dough hook in the bowl).
- Mix again on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, then transfer the dough to a bowl or straight-sided container and cover. Leave the dough to rest for 20-30 minutes.
- Add the olives and laminate them to the dough. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and mark the level on the bowl. Let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes.
- Perform two rounds of coil bending separated by a 20-30 minute rest.
- When the dough is swollen and has expanded by about 75%, finish the first leavening. For this batch of baguettes it took about 7 hours from the initial mixing at about 70F. If you want to refrigerate the dough to increase its acidity, it is easier to do so at this stage rather than when the dough has been shaped.
Preforming, Bench Rest, Shaping, Final Test
- Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide. Three whole baguettes of 418 g each or four demi baguettes of 314 g each.
- Preform tubes or balls, cover and let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes.
- Prepare a linen sofa or a couple of tea towels by flouring them and making channels in which to rest the baguettes.
- Turn each dough over and shape into baguettes using one of the techniques illustrated in the videos above. Transfer the baguettes into the grooves of the couche and cover with the couche itself or with another tea towel.
- Let the dough rise at room temperature for 30-90 minutes depending on the room temperature. This batch remained proof for 1 hour.
Oven preparation, baking
- Preheat oven and cooking setting to 500F for at least 30 minutes.
- Baking stone or sheet
- Place the baking stone on the middle shelf of the oven and place an aluminum pan with a pinhole on the shelf below. This creates a drip system for creating steam when you pour a cup of boiling water into the pan. When you drill the pinhole, check the sink to see that water is dripping through at about 1-2 drops per second. You can prepare a large sheet of baking paper to fit your baguettes or you can use a floured shovel to transfer the dough to the hot stone. For peeling I use a large sheet of baking paper placed on an upside down baking tray.
- Once the leavening is complete, boil a cup/cup of water. Then turn the baguettes onto the baking paper or peel and score several times on the diagonal. See this photo for a scoring guide.
- Using a baking sheet or an inverted baking tray, slide the parchment onto the stone and immediately pour the boiling water onto the foil baking tray below. Quickly close the oven door to trap the steam.
- Bake at 500F for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating as necessary.
- Turn off the oven, open the door with a wooden spoon and leave the baguettes in the oven for another 10 minutes to crisp up the crust.
- Closed container (Demi Baguette only)
- The Breadtopia Hearth baker and Challenger loaf pan have flat bases that hold two baguette halves and a lid that traps dough steam. Cut a sheet of baking paper to the size of the base to facilitate precise transfer of the baguettes onto the hot base. You can reuse a single sheet to bake the second pair of baguettes. If using a Challenger bread pan, prepare a piece of aluminum foil for the base of the pan as well to prevent the bottoms of the baguettes from burning.
- Once leavening is complete, turn the baguettes onto the baking paper.
- Score the baguettes on the diagonal. See this photo for scoring guidance.
- Remove the base of the hot pan from the oven. For the Challenger, add the layer of aluminum foil to the base.
- Using a baking tray or inverted baking tray, slide the parchment onto the base, cover and bake.
- Bake at 500F for 15 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and cook another 5 minutes. Leave the lid in the oven after removing it, so it doesn’t cool down for the second batch.
- When you remove the first set of baguettes from the oven, let the pan heat up for about 3-5 minutes, then bake the second set.
Warehousing
- To keep the baguettes crispy, leave them uncovered for about a day. After a day, package or wrap them to let them slowly harden and toast them to make them crispy again. You can wrap the baguettes tightly in plastic and even freeze them.
