Sundried tomato and Olive bread

First time I ever tasted olives was in a sandwich. I was new to this country and followed what my husband ordered for himself in a subway sandwich leaving out the mayonnaise. I should say I almost fell in love with the taste of olives. I like their saltiness and that is probably one of the reasons why I almost always have a jar of olives in my pantry. You will be surprised to know that I can snack on olives happily. I have made focaccia with it prior to my blogging days and I use it sometimes in pasta dishes. In an attempt to use up half used jar of olives, this bread was made.

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Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour - 2 1/4 cups - 2 1/2 cups (spoon and measure and not scoop - See Notes)
Warm water - 1 cup
Olive oil - 1 TBSP
Dry milk - 2 TBSP
Sugar - 1 TBSP
Dried basil - 1 tsp (If you have fresh, use up to 2 TBSP chopped)
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp or to taste
Salt - 1 tsp
Instant dry yeast - 1 1/2 tsp
Black Olives - 1/2 cup (pitted and sliced and then measured) You could use any kind of olives
Sun dried tomatoes - drained and chopped about 1/2 - 3/4 cup (9 of them gave me this much)

Method:
I used a bread machine to make the dough. Place all ingredients except sun dried tomatoes and olives in the order specified by the manufacturer (liquid, sugar, salt, flour, herbs and yeast at the last) and turn on the machine set on dough setting. When it beeps, add the sun dried tomatoes but don't add olives yet. When the cycle is complete, take out the dough and knead in the olives and proceed with the shaping and then baking. To make this by hand refer to the method mentioned in either this post or this post.

Grease a 8 X 4 loaf pan with vegetable oil spray. Shape the dough and place in the pan. Cover with an oiled aluminum foil and let rise till double in warm place. I had to turn the oven light on and leave it there. It took almost an hour for it to double. Towards the end of the rise time, preheat the oven to 375 F. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn down the temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 20 - 25 minutes or until the bread is golden. Remove from the pan to cool on the wire rack. Slice after completely cool. This bread is a nice accompaniment to soup. I toasted some slices and we ate it with marinara sauce like bruschetta.

This is on its way to Susan's Yeastspotting.

Notes:
Each brand of whole wheat flour absorbs water differently. Start with 2 1/4 cups and use the remaining 1/4 cup if needed. This dough is a little sticky but not too sticky. Don't be tempted to add more flour to make it not sticky. Then the bread will turn out dense and hard.

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