Mediterranes Baguette (Mediterranean herb and olive baguette)
A straight baguette dough folded with chopped olives, sun-dried tomato and dried herbs before the overnight ferment, so the additions are distributed through an otherwise standard open crumb rather than sitting as a separate layer. A very long, slow cold rise, closer to a day and a half than overnight, mellows the garlic and herbs into the dough rather than leaving them sharp.
Prep30 min
Cook25 min
Rest870 min
Oven240°C
Servings3
Christoph's Mediterranean baguette, a straight baguette dough folded with olives and sun-dried tomato ahead of a long, mellowing cold ferment.
Ingredients
Units
Temperature
Servings
Dough
- 500 g bread flour rounded
- 340 ml cold water rounded
- 3 g instant dried yeast rounded
- 9 g fine salt rounded
- 20 ml olive oil rounded
Mix-ins
- 100 g pitted black olives, roughly chopped rounded
- 40 g sun-dried tomatoes, in oil, drained and chopped rounded
- 6 g dried oregano rounded
- 1 garlic clove, grated rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Mix the flour, cold water and yeast together until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest 30 minutes.
- Add the salt and olive oil, and fold and squeeze in the bowl for about 2 minutes until it comes together.
- Cover and leave at room temperature for 1 hour, then fold: lift and fold each side over the middle with wet hands, turn the bowl, repeat 4 times. During this same fold, scatter over the olives, tomato, oregano and garlic and fold them through evenly. Repeat the plain fold twice more at 30 minute intervals.
- Cover tightly and refrigerate for 20 to 24 hours. This dough benefits from the longer end of that range; the extra time settles the garlic and olive flavour into the crumb rather than leaving it sharp.
- Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and divide into 3 pieces. Shape each into a rope as for a plain baguette: fold into a rough rectangle, roll from one end into a tight log about 35 cm long, pinch the seam.
- Place seam-down on a floured couche, cover, and prove 45 to 60 minutes, until visibly puffy.
- Heat the oven to 240°C with a baking sheet inside and a pan on the oven floor. Slash each loaf, slide onto the hot sheet, pour water into the pan for steam, and shut the door.
- Bake 22 to 25 minutes, until deep golden and hollow-sounding. Cool at least 20 minutes before slicing.
Method in the Thermomix
Written for a TM5 or TM6, 2.2 litre bowl.
- Flour, water and yeast into the bowl. Mix 10 sec / speed 6, rest 30 min in the bowl.
- Add the salt and oil. Knead 3 min / dough mode.
- Tip into a bowl and fold in the olives, tomato, oregano and garlic by hand, then continue from step 3 of the hand method.
Notes
- The longer cold ferment, up to 24 hours, is worth the wait here specifically. Raw garlic folded into a same-day dough tastes harsh; the extended cold rise mellows it substantially.
- Chop the olives and tomato to a similar size so they distribute evenly rather than clumping in pockets through the dough.
- Do not knock all the air out when shaping. As with a plain baguette, gentle handling at this stage protects the open crumb built up overnight.
- Best eaten the day it is baked; it does not keep as well as a plainer loaf, since the oil and tomato soften the crust faster.
Ingredient substitutions
- Sun-dried tomatoes in oil can be swapped for the same weight of roasted red pepper, patted dry and chopped.
- Black olives can be green olives, or a mix of both for more variety in the crumb.
- Dried oregano can be herbes de Provence for a slightly different herbal note.
From Christoph Mayer