Olive Lavender Poolish Bread

During the Sourdough craze of the covid pandemic I discovered Poolish. It felt much more doable for me (no babysitting a starter!), with even tastier results. Poolish is a pre-ferment where you mix one part flour and one part water with a small amount of yeast, resulting in a fairly wet sponge that is left to ferment overnight. This longer fermentation time adds more flavor and gives the bread a better texture. Adding a combination of briny olives and fragrant lavender creates a loaf that’s savory, aromatic, and just a little unexpected in the best possible way.

comforting, rustic, and deliciously unique

It’s the kind of bread that feels at home on any table: warm with butter, alongside a bowl of soup, or sliced thick for sandwiches. Every time we bake it, the aroma reminds us why this recipe has stayed with us—comforting, rustic, and deliciously unique.

Ingredients

Poolish

• 150 gram Wheat flour (bread flour) with 11.5% protein content.

• 150 gram water

• 1 gram fresh yeast or 0.3 gram instant dry yeast, or 0.5 gram dry active yeast

Final dough

• 285 gram Wheat flour (bread flour) with 11.5% protein content

• 165 gram water

• 9 gram salt

• 1/3 cup Niçoise olives

• 1 tablespoon Blue Barn Culinary Lavender Buds

  
  

Instructions

Mixing Poolish

• Dissolve the yeast in the water, add the flour, and mix into a homogenous batter. Place the container with the Poolish covered in room temperature for about 8-10 hours.

Final dough

• Heat up the remaining water to 86°F/30°C. Add poolish, flour, and salt and mix with your hands until all flour is incorporated with the water.

• Let the dough ferment for 2 to3 hours. Perform 3 -4 stretch and folds at the beginning of the fermentation process. The dough should expand twice it's original volume.

• Dump out the dough on a lightly floured working surface and shape it into a round. Let it relax for 15 minutes. Shape the dough a second time into a Batard or other preferred shape. Place it into a floured proofing basket and wrap it in a plastic bag.

• Let it proof for 1 hour or until it passes the finger poke test.

Baking

• Pre-heat the oven to 480ºF / 250ºC. together with a Dutch, clay cooker, or baking stone in good time before it's time to bake, at least 30 minutes. If you are baking on a stone or a baking sheet, place an extra sheet in the lower part of the oven.

• Dump out the dough very carefully on a piece of parchment paper. Place the dough and parchment paper into the Dutch oven And transfer it into the hot oven. If you are baking on a baking stone or baking sheet you just let the dough and parchment paper slide into the oven, using a pizza peel or similar. Pour some water on the extra baking sheet below the dough to create steam. NEVER pour water directly onto the bottom of the oven.

• Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until at least medium dark brown. If you use a dutch oven or a clay cooker, remove the lid after 30 minutes. Let the bread cool on wire racks for an hour before slicing it.