Olive Sourdough Bread Recipe

There’s something about the combination of salty, briny olives and that deeply tangy sourdough crumb that just stops you in your tracks. We made this olive sourdough bread on a drizzly Saturday afternoon with our youngest, and honestly, it’s become one of those bakes I look forward to all week. Our 8-year-old was absolutely obsessed with the lamination step (more on that in a moment), and my husband declared the finished loaf better than anything we’d bought from a deli. High praise in this house.

If you’ve been baking sourdough for a while and you’re ready to try your first add-in loaf, this is the one to start with. Olives are forgiving, the flavour they bring is extraordinary, and the process isn’t much more complex than a plain sourdough. The result is a rustic, crackling-crusted loaf dotted with jammy olive pieces that disappears embarrassingly fast.

Here’s the full recipe, plus everything you need to know about getting it right.

What You’ll Need

For the dough:

• 450g strong white bread flour
• 325ml lukewarm water
• 100g active sourdough starter (fed 8 to 12 hours before you start)
• 9g fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoons good extra virgin olive oil

For the filling:

• 150g pitted Kalamata olives, halved (or a mix of Kalamata and Castelvetrano if you can get them)
• A few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked (optional but lovely)

You’ll also need a Dutch oven or lidded cast iron pot, and a banneton or a bowl lined with a well-floured tea towel.

How to Make Olive Sourdough Bread

The Night Before: Mix Your Dough

In a large bowl, combine your water and active starter and stir briefly to distribute. Add the flour and mix until everything comes together into a shaggy dough with no dry patches. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rest for 45 minutes to an hour. This rest is called the autolyse, and it gets the gluten developing without any kneading.

After the autolyse, drizzle in your olive oil and sprinkle over the salt. Use your fingers to work both through the dough, pinching and folding until they’re fully incorporated. It’ll feel a bit slippery at first. Keep going. Once it comes together, cover and leave for 30 minutes.

Stretch and Fold (x4)

Over the next two hours, perform four sets of stretch and folds, one roughly every 30 minutes. To do this, wet your hand, reach under one side of the dough, stretch it up as far as it’ll go without tearing, and fold it over to the opposite side. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat, going around all four sides. That’s one set done.

Our youngest was completely gripped by this part. He kept asking whether the dough was “getting stronger” with each fold, and honestly, yes, that’s exactly what’s happening.

If you’re new to sourdough entirely, it’s worth getting comfortable with a plain loaf first. King Arthur Baking’s sourdough beginner guide is one of the best free resources out there and covers everything from starter health to fermentation times in a genuinely accessible way.

Lamination: Adding the Olives

After your second or third stretch and fold, it’s time to add the olives. This is where the magic (and the mess) happens.

Lightly mist your work surface with water or wipe it with a damp cloth. Gently tip the dough out onto the surface and, using wet hands, carefully stretch it into a thin rectangle. Don’t rush this. The dough should spread fairly easily if your gluten is developing well.

Scatter your halved olives (and rosemary if using) evenly over the surface. Then fold the dough like a letter: one short edge folded in two-thirds of the way, then the other edge folded over the top. Give it a quarter turn and fold again. You’re essentially packaging all those olives inside the dough so they get evenly distributed throughout the crumb.

Our 8-year-old was given full responsibility for scattering the olives. He took this role extremely seriously.

Transfer the dough back to the bowl, cover it, and carry on with your remaining stretch and fold sets.

Bulk Fermentation

Leave the dough to bulk ferment at room temperature until it’s puffed, airy, and has grown by around 50 to 75 per cent. In our kitchen (which runs a bit cool in winter), this takes anywhere from 5 to 8 hours. In summer you’ll want to keep an eye on it, as it moves much faster.

Shape and Cold Proof

Once bulk fermentation is done, gently turn the dough out onto an unfloured surface. Shape it into a tight round (boule) or an oval (batard), building surface tension by dragging it towards you on the work surface. Transfer seam-side up into your floured banneton, tuck it into a plastic bag or cover with a shower cap, and put it straight in the fridge overnight.

Cold proofing overnight gives you that slow, deep sour flavour and makes the dough much easier to score in the morning.

Bake Day

Preheat your oven to 230°C fan (250°C conventional) with your Dutch oven inside. Give it a good 45 minutes to heat up properly.

Take your dough straight from the fridge. Tip it carefully onto a piece of baking parchment, then slash the top with a lame or a sharp serrated knife. If you’re not sure how deep or confident to go with your scores, this guide to sourdough scoring from Heartbeet Kitchen is really practical and covers the exact techniques that make the difference between a clean ear and a ragged tear. Lower the scored loaf on its parchment into the hot Dutch oven, put the lid on, and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the lid and bake for a further 20 to 25 minutes until the crust is a deep, mahogany brown. This is not the time to be cautious. Pale sourdough is underbaked sourdough.

Transfer to a wire rack and leave it to cool for at least an hour before slicing. I know that’s agonising. But a loaf cut too soon will be gummy inside, and this one deserves better than that.

How It Turned Out (Our Verdict)

The first time we made this, the olive distribution was a bit uneven because we rushed the lamination. The second time, slowing down and stretching the dough more patiently gave us a proper, even crumb with olives in nearly every slice. The difference was noticeable.

Our youngest ate three slices in a row with nothing but good butter, declared it “the best bread we’ve ever made,” and immediately asked when we were making it again. My husband grilled a couple of slices the following morning and ate them with scrambled eggs. Both approaches were excellent.

If you love baking bread with us, our Mary Berry soda bread is a great one to try when you want something homemade without the long prove. And if you’re after something a bit showier for guests, our homemade pesto focaccia with cherry tomatoes is always a crowd-pleaser.

What to Eat with Olive Sourdough Bread

This loaf is versatile enough to go in several directions, and it’s worth thinking about how you want to serve it before you even slice it.

It’s brilliant alongside a cheeseboard or a charcuterie spread. The saltiness of the olives works beautifully with aged cheddar, manchego, or a creamy brie. A dish of good extra virgin olive oil with cracked black pepper and a splash of balsamic for dipping is the simplest and most satisfying option, particularly when the bread is still slightly warm.

For something more substantial, it makes excellent toast. Topped with smashed avocado and a squeeze of lemon, or with soft goat’s cheese and a drizzle of honey, it’s a proper lunch. We’ve also used it as the base for a very good bruschetta: toasted slices rubbed with a cut garlic clove, heaped with chopped tomatoes and torn basil.

If you want to serve it as part of a meal, it’s the kind of bread that holds its own alongside a simple pasta with olive oil and garlic, a bowl of thick vegetable soup, or roasted Mediterranean vegetables. The olive flavour in the bread echoes whatever Mediterranean ingredients you’re cooking with, which makes the whole meal feel coherent.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why add olive oil to sourdough bread?

Olive oil softens both the crumb and the crust. The fat coats the gluten-forming proteins in the flour, which relaxes the gluten network and gives you a more tender, moist interior. It also adds a subtle richness to the flavour and helps the loaf stay fresh for a little longer than a plain sourdough. The trade-off is that too much olive oil can make the dough harder to develop properly, so keep to around two tablespoons for a standard loaf. If you want a more open, holey crumb, go easy on the oil or leave it out entirely, as it can inhibit gluten development.

How do you add olive oil to sourdough bread?

Add the olive oil after the autolyse, once the flour has had time to hydrate and the gluten has begun forming. Drizzle it over the dough along with the salt and work both in together using your fingers, pinching and folding until fully incorporated. Avoid adding the oil right at the start of mixing, as it can interfere with the flour absorbing water properly.

How do you make sourdough olive bread?

The process is the same as a standard sourdough, with one extra step: lamination. After two or three stretch and folds during bulk fermentation, stretch the dough into a thin rectangle on a damp work surface, scatter your pitted and halved olives across it, and fold the dough back up around them. This distributes the olives evenly through the crumb so you get olive in every slice. Kalamata olives are the most popular choice for their depth of flavour, though Castelvetrano olives give a milder, buttery result if that’s more to your taste. Cold proof the shaped loaf overnight in the fridge and bake in a preheated Dutch oven the following morning.

How do you eat sourdough bread with olive oil?

The classic approach is to pour a small dish of your best extra virgin olive oil, add a crack of black pepper, and dip thick slices of bread straight in. For something a little more elevated, add a splash of good balsamic vinegar and a pinch of flaky sea salt to the oil. Toasting the bread first gives you a crisper texture that holds up to dipping without going soggy. You can also drizzle olive oil directly over sliced bread and finish with a grating of parmesan and some torn fresh basil.

This really has become a weekend staple in our house. There’s something about the whole process, the lamination, the overnight wait, pulling it out of the oven looking like something from a proper artisan bakery, that makes it feel genuinely special. And doing it with our youngest made it even better. He can now explain what “lamination” means to anyone who’ll listen, which is an extremely niche skill for an 8-year-old but we’re very proud.

If you give this a go, let me know in the comments which olives you used and whether you kept it simple or added rosemary.

See more of my baking and bread posts to try!

Becky

Meet the award-nominated UK lifestyle blogger behind Spirited Puddle Jumper – a mum of three living in South East London! Becky shares the real ups and downs of family life, parenting tips, and lifestyle inspiration, proving that being a mum doesn’t mean you stop being fun or having other interests! Follow along for honest insights into UK family life and opinions on a whole range of topics, from travel and food, to beauty reviews, home and DIY, business and health and wellness.