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It takes three days to make these olive baguettes, but they are seriously worth it! These olive baguettes, or baguettes aux olives as they´d be called in French, are a twist on this basic 3-Day Baguette recipe. Don´t worry, it may take three days to make these olive baguettes, but it involves hardly any hands-on-time. The dough spends most of the time in the fridge slowly proofing and developing flavour!
I just LOVE French food
I absolutely LOVE France! The people, the language, the food. Especially the food!😂 Both the sweet, delicious patisserie and all the savoury goodies: amazing salami, pâté en croûte, quiches and, of course, the bread! Olive baguettes (baguettes aux olives in French) and pain de Campagne are my absolute favourites!
We used to go on family holidays to France almost every year, mostly to the Côte d´Azur in the south of France. It is one of my favourite places in the whole world, and I had planned to go there again this year! But due to the slight issue of a worldwide pandemic, I don’t think that will be happening…
So – If the girl can´t go to France, then I have to bring France (or at least the taste of it) to Scotland! And although I say so myself, these baguettes are pretty damn close to the original!
I have a few French patisserie recipes on my blog, so if you love French treats as much as I do, why not go and check some of them out:
- Strawberry Fraisier Cake
- Chocolate Éclairs
- Classic 3-Day Baguettes
- Crème Chantilly (Chantilly Cream) | Baking Basics #6
What Olives Are Best For These Olive Baguettes?
Now, to get that really intense black olive flavour into your bread, I´d recommend using dried black olives. They are great as they don´t add too much liquid to the dough which would make it wet and sticky. Plus, they are lovely and salty which will add so much more flavour to your baguette dough.
The best dried olives I have been able to find here in the UK are these Moroccan Dry Black Olives from Sainsbury´s. I LOVE these, I cannot explain how good they are! If you aren´t able to get those, make sure you choose a similar alternative, as the saltiness from dry black olives makes all the difference in the final product!
I might be stating the obvious here, but these olives are often not pitted when you buy them. So make sure you remove all the stones before adding the olives to your bread!
The 3-Day Process
The 3-day process of making these baguettes starts with making a preferment. It´s basically a dough that you leave to ferment for 24 hours, before adding it to another dough. This will add incredible flavour to the final baguettes.
On day two, you make the actual bread dough for the baguettes, to which you add the pre-fermented dough you created the day before. The second day kneading process is a bit longer than on day one, as now you really are trying to build up the gluten and make a smooth and stretchy dough. Once smooth, you can add your olives to the dough. Knead for 1-2 minutes to ensure they are well incorporated and evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Day three, and you´ll finally get to bake your olive baguettes. First, you shape the baguettes, then you give them a last one-hour proof at room temperature. The 3-day olive baguettes are then baked in a hot oven with steam for 20-25 minutes and hey presto, you´re done!
Baking with Steam
When baking bread, you need to have some steam in the oven in order for the bread to develop a nice crust. If you are a fan of good, crusty bread, then make sure to check out my Crusty Sourdough Loaf recipe.
Some, slightly more “fancy” ovens can insert steam into the oven automatically. If, like me, you just have a boring old normal oven, you´ll need to make “your own” steam.
All you need to do, is heat a roasting tray in the oven whilst it is preheating. Just as the baguettes go in, pour some boiling water straight from the kettle into the roasting tray and quickly close the oven door. This will create a nice burst of steam for the baguettes to bake in.
Freezing the Baguettes/Halving the Recipe
The recipe below is enough to make 6 baguettes. This might seem quite a lot, but if you don´t give them away to friends or family, you can easily put them in the freezer! Once you are ready to eat them, defrost them (I do it overnight) and then quickly reheat in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 200°C to crisp them up!
As it takes three days to make the baguettes, I highly recommend making the full batch. You are making them anyway, so might as well make all 6 and freeze any you don´t need at the time! However, the recipe is also easily halved, so you can always just make 3.
Also, what I did and would highly recommend, is to make the full amount of dough but only add olives to half of it. Then you can make 3 plain, and 3 olive baguettes (that´ll please the family members who don´t like olives, haha). You will need about 150g of olives (once pitted) for three baguettes.
Baguettes aux Olives/Pain d´Olives | French Olive Baguettes
Recipe
Total Recipe Ingredients (makes 6 baguettes):
FOR THE BAGUETTES:
- 950g strong white flour (bread flour), plus a little extra for dusting
- 27g salt
- 25g fresh yeast (or 12.5g dried yeast)
- 590ml water
- 300g dry black olives (weight once pitted), roughly chopped
- A little olive oil, for greasing
YOU WILL ALSO NEED:
- Large mixing bowl
- Dough scraper
- French couche (or a sturdy dish towel)
- Bread lame, razor blade or sharp knife (I use throw-away Stanley knifes)
Day 1 – Preferment
Ingredients:
- 450g strong white flour (bread flour)
- 12g salt
- 290ml lukewarm water
- 10g fresh yeast
Method:
- Start by crumbling the yeast into the lukewarm water and stir until it has completely dissolved.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt, then pour in the yeast and water. Use your hands to bring the mixture together until it forms a dough.
- Tip onto a clean work surface and knead for about 4-5 minutes. The dough can be quite sticky, but don´t be tempted to add any extra flour at this point. You are only kneading the dough for a short amount of time to bring the ingredients together. The real work of building up the gluten and creating flavour is done by the fridge!
- Lightly oil the bowl (no knead (see what I did there?) to wash) and a piece of clingfilm. Return your preferment into the bowl and cover with the clingfilm (oiled side down). Place the bowl in the fridge for at least 18-24 hours.
Day 2 – Making the Baguette Dough and Adding The Olives
Ingredients:
- Pre-fermented dough
- 500g strong white flour (bread flour)
- 15g salt
- 300ml lukewarm water
- 15g fresh yeast
- 300g dry black olives (weight once pitted), roughly chopped
Method:
- Again, start by dissolving the fresh yeast in the water.
- Remove the pre-fermented dough from the fridge. Tip it onto your work surface and break it into smaller pieces. This will make it easier to work into the dough.
- Weigh the flour and salt into a mixing bowl (you can use the bowl your pre-ferment was in), mix, then add in the water and yeast, and the pieces of pre-fermented dough.
- Use your hands to combine all the ingredients and bring them together to form a dough. Transfer the dough to a clean work surface and knead the dough for 10-15 minutes. Again, the dough might be a bit sticky but don´t be tempted to add any more flour. I find it helps to use a dough scraper, as well as your hands, when kneading a sticky dough and to use more of a “stretch and fold technique”. Another tip, is to stop kneading after about 10 minutes and leave the dough to rest for a few minutes (you could wash the dishes in the meantime). When you go back to the dough, it will be a lot less sticky and easier to work with.
- Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic and passes the “window pane test”. This means, that you can stretch a piece of dough between your fingers without tearing, until it is thin enough for you to see light shine through it. You should also be able to see some nice strands of gluten, too!
- Flatten out the dough into a rough circle, then scatter the chopped olives on top. Work the olives into the dough until completely incorporated and evenly distributed throughout. You could also just add olives to half of the dough, to make 3 plain and 3 olive baguettes (that´s what I did).
- Return the dough for the olive baguettes to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a piece of lightly oiled clingfilm and then place in the fridge for another 18-24 hours, or even up to 36 hours!
Day 3 – Shaping and Baking (Finally!)
- Remove the dough from the fridge and divide into 6 equal portions (about 250g each), then roll each piece into a ball. For the shaping process, I´d highly recommend watching this video (from ~10:00 minutes), but I will do my best to explain it in writing below.
- Instead of trying to shape the baguettes in one go, the process is broken down into stages to allow the dough to relax in between each step. You may want to flour your work surface lightly during the shaping process, although a slight stickiness to the dough will help with the rolling.
- First, you want to shape each portion of dough into a rectangle. To do so, pull the ball of dough from opposite ends to stretch it out, then fold the end bits in towards the middle. Then, starting from the long edge facing you, roll the edge into the centre, then push it down into the dough to seal. Repeat once more to form a rectangle/sausage shape about 15cm long. Do this with all 6 pieces of dough, then leave to bench rest for 10-15 minutes.
- Once the dough has had the change to rest a little, you can shape it into a baguette. Take each piece of dough and roll into a long sausage, about 30cm long. Start from the middle and work your way out, applying pressure to the dough as you do so.
- Heavily flour a couche (proofing cloth used by the French) or sturdy dish towel (I used a small hand towel) and place the shaped baguettes onto it, side by side, folding up the towel between each baguette to create a barrier. To make sure the baguettes at the end are also supported from either side, you can either place your tea towel on a baking tray, or just place some bowls etc. at either end. Arranging and supporting the baguettes in this way will ensure that they proof upwards, rather than spread out.
- Leave the baguettes to proof for 50 minutes, or until the dough quickly springs back when you press down on it gently. About 30 minutes into the proof, preheat the oven to 240°C and place a large roasting tray into the bottom of the oven.
- Carefully transfer your baguettes onto two large baking trays (3 baguettes per tray) lined with baking paper. Use a bread lame, razor blade, or very sharp knife to slash the baguettes. Make 4 confident cuts down the length of the dough. The cuts should only be very slightly diagonal, almost straight and should overlap slightly.
- Slide the baking trays with the baguettes into the hot oven. As you do so, pour some boiling water into the preheated roasting tray at the bottom of the oven to create a burst of steam, then quickly close the oven door.
- Bake the baguettes for 20-25 minutes until golden and a nice crust has formed.
