Quick Olive Oil Bread & Delicious Dipping Sauce Recipes

Make Ahead Bread Dough Recipes

I think many of us would agree that there aren’t many things better than freshly baked bread, but oh the time it takes! Wouldn’t it be great if you could have homemade dough on hand that you could use for bread, pizza, or rolls at any time!

With winter here we thought it was a great time to share another quick bread recipe with you that you loved as much as the 5-Minute Focaccia!

Quick No-Knead Olive Oil Bread

This extremely easy recipe requires no kneading and the beauty of the recipe is that it makes enough dough of four 1-pound amounts that can be used for focaccia-instead of buying store-bought pizza dough, pizza, calzones, rolls, cinnamon rolls, and so much more! Let your imagination run free with all the different recipes you can use this no-knead olive oil dough recipe for to make tasty treats.

The recipe we share with you can be made into larger loaves just by dividing the recipe in half instead of quarters. This is a wonderful recipe to make up and have on hand when you want fresh bread to go with your winter soups. The beauty of this recipe is it will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks or double bag your dough and keep it in the freezer for a few months. If you freeze your dough, just remove it from the freezer and put it in the refrigerator the day ahead, or put it out on your counter for about 30-60 minutes depending on room temperature.

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 4 pounds of bread dough and can easily be expanded to larger batches.

• 3 1/4 cups of lukewarm water, just make sure it’s tepid to touch, meaning to cool for a shower, but not hot, you don’t want to kill the yeast
• 1/4 cup Tastealotta Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon dried instant yeast, not rapid rise-great hint, buy your yeast in bulk and store in your refrigerator
• 4 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 7 1/2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour, plus what you will be using for dusting the dough

Directions:

1. Use a heavy-duty spoon to stir together the water, oil, yeast, salt, sugar, and flour in a large bowl.
2. Transfer the dough to a large container with a lid or divide between two smaller container and rest on your kitchen counter for about 2 hours. Pick a bowl that is large enough because the dough really expands!
3. The dough can be used immediately, but it is much easier to handle once it has been chilled at least 3 hours.
4. The dough can be stored in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks and properly stored as described above in the freezer for a few months.
5. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough lightly with flour, then pull off about a quarter of the dough.
6. Dust the portion with flour that you will be working with and shape into a ball, by stretching the dough on al four sides and rotating the ball as you do the process.
7. For bread, let it rest on a baking sheet covered with cornmeal. The cornmeal helps the loaf slide off easily when finished baking.
8. Heat your oven to 450 degrees and place an empty baking pan on the shelf below where you will be baking your bread.
9. Dust the top of the loaf with flour and make a couple of slashes in the top of the dough.
10. Put about a cup of water in the baking pan below your baking sheet-the water helps give your bread a wonderful crust.
11. Bake your bread for about 30 minutes or until nicely brown and firm to the touch. Like a ripe watermelon it should sound hollow when you thump your fingers on the bottom of the loaf.

This recipe can easily be adapted to pizza, focaccia, calzone, rolls, cinnamon rolls, and so much more. Recipe credit: Adapted from “Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Zoe François and Jeff Hertzberg (Thomas Dunne Books, 2011), as posted on ArtisanBreadInFive.com.

Delicious Olive Oil Dipping Sauce Recipe

Nothing goes better with fresh olive oil bread or sourdough bread than a delicious dipping sauce. You can adapt this recipe for larger batches very easily and it stores well in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. If stored in the refrigerator remember to bring up to room temperature an hour before serving.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Tastealotta Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/2 teaspoon pressed garlic, fresh
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed rosemary
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons freshly ground parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Stir together the olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, oregano, basil, rosemary, sea salt, and ground pepper in a small bowl and let the flavors blend at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
2. Just before serving dust the top of the serving bowl with your olive oil dipping sauce with the freshly ground Parmesan cheese and serve.

Winter Is the Time for Soup

Winter is a great time for soup. At Tastelotta we have a wonderful selection of Slow Cooker Soups, many of which are gluten-free. It is so easy to start a slow cooker in the morning and have a tasty warm meal of homemade soup for dinner. With the olive oil bread recipe we shared and the dipping sauce recipe, you have the makings for a terrific meal with very little time expended.

For our customers that have Instant Pots, slow cooker recipes can easily be adapted to an Instant Pot and instead of a few hours, your soup can be ready in usually less than 30 minutes, with meat additions it takes longer. If adding meat to your slow cooker recipe in an Instant Pot, make sure your meat is cut up in smaller pieces so they cook evenly. Enjoy winter with Tastelotta Slow Cooker Soups!