Ok, so it didn't take a whole weekend, but I decided to take advantage of the unexpected Hurricane days to bake a loaf of the olive bread I've been meaning to attempt for a while now. Every time I visit my parents with a new loaf of something, the first thing my dad says is "Wheres' the olive bread?" So, now he can shut up.
I used the smashed grape starter I saw Nancy Silverton make on an episode of Martha Stewart or Julia Child or something my mom recorded on her DVR. That was an interesting process. It was actually much easier than doing a traditional starter, what with the discarding and feeding and the early funky cheese stage. This method has none of that. It works on the principle that the yeast on the surface of the grapes (all that white residue on the skin) gets fed by the sugars in the juicer 6 days and inoculates the flour and water. Just a bit of stirring each day until the end, when you give it its first real feeding. Worked out nicely.
I also did not "overnight" the dough this time... which might have been overkill anyway since the olives add a briny sourness that extra fermentation time usually does or you. It's a bit softer and the crust crisper, probably also because it didn't have time to dry out in the fridge.
Using the trusty dutch oven technique (20 minutes covered at 500 F, 20 minutes uncovered at 450 F), it turned out to be a handsome loaf. I am not a big olive freak like my dad, but I have to say that dipped in a little olive oil (or spread with goat cheese), this is a fancy treat!
