The Olives Really Let Their Presence be Known in this Bread, and there are enough in each loaf that it would be hard to take a slice and not have the intense flavor of olives expanding in your mouth. The olives are drained, pitted if necessary (note that even olives that come “pitted” very often contain pits), and laid onto towels to dry for several hours or overnight. If they still seem moist, lay more towels on top and gently press to extract more of their liquid. Sliced olives or whole olives can be used. If the pieces are too small, however, which they often are when the olives are sliced, they tend to get a little lost in the dough and also might stain the dough a purple color.

The ingredient cost goes up dramatically when “high-octane” ingredients like olives are added to breads. The overall percentage of olives can be somewhat lowered, to about 22 percent, and the bread will still retain a discernible olive flavor.

The percentage of salt in the formula—1.5 percent—looks unusually low. This, of course, is because the olives contribute saltiness. If we were to add 1.8 or 2 percent salt, the bread would be too salty.