Olive Bread (Eliopsomo/Ελιόψωμο)

First I would like to apologize to all of you for not being able to visit your blogs the last couple of days, as I am a little sick. Sore throat, nose that sneezes and generally all these beautiful and exciting things that come with the common cold. I avoid sitting in front of the computer so much because my eyes are burning after a while. So, just bear with me and I will get back in a couple of days stronger than before, or so I hope, unless my cold has other things in its mind. This is a post I have already prepared a few days ago since these days I drink a lot of soup. 

My relationship to bread is the kind of love and hate one. When I succeed in making a good loaf of bread I love it and when I fail I hate it. Bread is not my strong point, I know that but I cannot accept the defeat. Sometimes I am stubborn as mule. I refuse to give up and I will try and try and try. You my blog-friends will be the witnesses of my efforts and I promise you I will only occupy you with my successes and not my failures.

In Greece we still have bakeries in every neighborhood that sell bread and other yeast or sweet things. My husband loves this type of bread and I always wanted to try and make it at home.

So, from my introduction you can understand that this bread was a success and I may dare to say huge one. First of all is as simple as you say go and second is so tasty, I guarantee you everyone will love it in your family.

So, if you are like me my friends out there in the huge blogosphere and bread is your Achilles’ heel then follow me in making this beautiful and easy bread and nobody will know.

In the mixer put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Pour the water and start mixing for about 10 minutes until the smooth ball is gathered around the hook.

Take a bowl and oil it. Place the dough either in a warm place or in the oven for an hour.

After the hour has passed deflate the dough and let it stand for another hour.

After these two hours of rising, take the dough split in two and incorporate the olives to both of them by hand. Just knead a little bit until the olives are inside your dough.

Let some olives to add them on top as a decoration.

Form to balls pressed on top to flatten and put them on a pan covered with parchment paper.

Let them rise for ½ hour and in the meantime preheat your oven to 175° C.

Bake them for at least half an hour or until they become dark golden brown.

Turn off the oven and let them in for another ten minutes so as to completely dry inside.

Cut and serve with feta cheese. Trust me on that, feta and olives go together like crazy.