Olive Sourdough Boules

Yes, more sourdough bread. As I slowly (but surely) gained more confidence in making the basic sourdough bread, I tried mixing in more interesting ingredients into the dough to give variety to the daily bread that my family eats.

Olive Sourdough Boules
(makes two 450g boules)
Ingredients
428g organic bread flour
72g organic whole wheat flour
100g sourdough starter
304g water (281g + 23g)
65g olives, sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil 
12g sea salt

Steps to boules:

• In a large mixing bowl, mix the sourdough starter with 281g of filtered water.
• Add in flours and stir until it forms a shaggy mass. The mixture need not be uniformly mixed. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, sprinkle the salt, mix in the remaining water (23g), sliced olive and olive oil. Mix till a uniform dough is formed.
• After a uniform dough is formed, stretch the dough by folding on itself. Grab the dough at 12 o'clock position, pull it upwards and fold it over itself at the 6 o'clock position. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and fold in the same manner, repeating the folds for a total of 4 times. Cover the bowl again and let the dough rest for 30 minutes then repeat the cycle every 30 minutes for 2 hours. 4 folds every 30 minutes for 2 hours. Wet your hands before the start of the fold so that the dough will not stick to your hands.
• After 2 hours, completing the four sets of folds, divide the dough into 2 equal halves. Roll each half into a ball and let it sit on the counter covered with a damp cloth for 20 minutes.
• To form the dough, take one of the dough and gently pull it into a rectangular shape. Fold the bottom half a little over the center of the rectangle. Grab the right side of the folded side and stretch it a little and fold it onto the center of the folded side. Repeat for the left side of the dough. Stretch the top end of the dough and fold it over to the bottom end of the dough and seal the dough. Using a tying shoe lace method, pull with your thumb and index fingers from the top end of the dough pieces of the dough and crisscross  them toward the center of the dough and working your way down to the bottom of the dough. Lastly, roll the dough like a Swiss roll onto itself and pinch the seam close and roll it onto itself on the tabletop to tighten the surface of the dough.(It would be better to watch a video on YouTube on 'how to form a sourdough boules')
• Place the dough into a heavily floured round vessel, lined with a cloth and cover with a cling wrap and let it proof 8 - 10 hours or overnight in a refrigerator.
• The next day, let the dough sit at room temperature for 4 hours. In the third hour, preheat the oven.
• Preheat oven to 300 degrees C (500 F) for 1 hour. Place a enamel pot and a pizza stone into the oven as it is preheating. This will be the baking vessel that will hold in the steam generated from the bread while it is baking to create the thin crust on the bread. 
• Be very careful at this stage, everything is extremely HOT. Use a pair of thick oven gloves to protect your hands.
• Once the oven is preheated, turn your bread onto a pizza peel (I used the removal base of a tart pan) lined with baking paper. Use a sharp knife to score the surface of the dough. Very carefully take out the enamel pot from the oven and pulling the baking paper, slid the dough onto the pizza stone. Cover the dough with the enamel pot turned over to act as a cover and bake for 20 minutes. 

• After 20 minutes, open the oven (be very careful as hot steam will rush out when you open the oven door) and remove the enamel pot leaving the bread on the pizza stone and reduce the temperature to 220 degrees C (425 F) and let the bread bake for another 10 - 12 minutes or till golden brown. 

• Once baked, transfer the bread very carefully to an elevated cooling rack to cool for at least 1 - 2 hours. 
• Return the enamel pot into the oven and increase temperature to 300 degree (500F) and let it preheat for 15 minutes before you proceed with the second loaf. Repeat the steps above to bake the second loaf. 

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