Herbed Olive Bread Cyprus Style Recipes

GREEK CYPRUS OLIVE ROSEMARY FLATBREAD (ELIOPITA)

Steps:

• Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the chopped rosemary. Make a well in the center and add the water, the 1/4 cup oil, the olives, and onion. Stir together until fairly well mixed, then gather the mixture into a crumbly ball.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead, working in extra flour as needed, until smooth and elastic and no longer sticky, 10 minutes. Form the dough into a ball, cover it with a cloth, and let it rest on the work surface until beginning to rise and starting to feel spongy, 10 to 20 minutes.
• While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 375°F Lightly coat a baking sheet with oil.
• When the dough is ready, flatten it out with your hands into a 10-inch diameter round. Transfer it to the prepared baking sheet and bake until slightly golden, 40 minutes.
• Brush the top and sides of the bread liberally with oil and sprinkle on the rosemary needles. Continue baking until quite golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet completely before serving.
• NOTES: Olive provides the acid element that is needed to activate the baking powder.
• In this recipe, the reason for sifting the flour is twofold; to ensure that there are no clumps of baking powder in the dough (the taste is not pleasant) and to lighten the flour for the weak leavening.
• VARIATIONS: Quick Olive Paximadia: Since flatbread starts out rather condensed in texture, elipita makes a fine hard rusk, especially to accompany hors d'oeuvres.
• You can top the rusks with a pile of finely chopped tomatoes, heap them with dressed sauted chickpeas, or spread them with taramasalata or other pastes. Since they are oven toasted rather than slow baked like traditional paximadia, they can be at hand quickly.
• Preheat the oven to 300°F Cut Olive Flatbread into slices 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide and 3 to 4 inches long. Place the slices on a baking sheet and toast, turning once, until light golden on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Remove, and brush one side of each slice with olive oil. Or, to keep for later, cool the rusks completely on the baking sheet and then store them in an airtight container. They will keep for up to 6 months.
• Adventures In Greek Cooking.

GREEK CYPRUS OLIVE GARLIC BREAD WITH LEMON ZEST (ELIOPSOMI)

Steps:

• Stir together the water and sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and set aside until bubbly, 15 minutes.
• Place the 3 1/2 cups flour and salt in a large bowl and mix with a fork. Make a well in the center and add the 1/4 cup oil, the zest, garlic, olives, and yeast mixture. Stir together until fairly well mixed; then use your hands to knead the mixture into a crumbly ball.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic and no longer sticky, 10 minutes. Lightly bush the dough with oil, cover it with a cloth, and set it aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.
• Lightly grease a baking sheet with oil. Punch down the dough and knead it again for 1 minutes. Pat the dough into a ball and flatten it slightly to make a round about 6 inches in diameter. Place the dough round on the prepared baking sheet and set it aside in a warm place until doubled in bulk again, about 1 1/2 hours.
• When ready to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 425°F.
• Place the bread in the oven and bake until quite golden, 30 minutes. Brush the top and sides of the loaf liberally with oil and continue baking until browned and hollow sounding when tapped, 5 minutes more.
• Remove the bread from the oven and cool on the baking sheet until ready to serve.
• VARIATION: Olive Cheese Bread: Olive Garlic Bread easily turns into another Cypriot loaf, a cheese and olive bread. Omit (or leave in) the garlic and lemon zest and add 1 cup grated cheese, preferably Cypriot haloumi.
• THE NONTRADITIONAL CHOICE:.
• While it is easier to use Kalamata olives (they are readily available and can be bought pitted), traditionally Cypriotic olive breads use only oil-cured or oil-and-salt-brined olives, never those that are cured even partly in vinegar, as Kalamatas are. Cyprus produces both green and black olives, plump to wrinkled, cured in numerous ways. Using Kalamata olives for the olive flatbread, the taste of the bread, while slightly tarter than the traditional, is still excellent.
• Adventures In Greek Cooking.