Helen Oless's Prosciutto and Olive Braid

By Bryan Miller

Total Time
About 2 hours 45 minutes
Rating
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Notes
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Helen Oless developed this bread while working as a baker at Bloomingdale's in the early 1980s. Ms. Oless put into practice years of experimentation with flours, yeasts and baking techniques to create delicious country-style brick-oven breads, then the pride of the store's bakeshop. They included rye, whole wheat, white, currant-whole wheat, walnut-whole wheat as well as more exotic combinations such as an aromatic cheddar cheese-caraway and this prosciutto-olive braid.

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Ingredients

Yield:1 large loaf
  • 1tablespoon cornmeal for baking sheet
  • 6ounces slab prosciutto, finely chopped (least salty variety)
  • 1teaspoon olive oil
  • 1garlic clove, mashed in salt
  • 2teaspoons fennel seed, bruised in mortar and pestle
  • ¼teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
  • 1¼cups hot (about 110 degrees) tap water
  • 1tablespoon dry yeast
  • 1½teaspoons sugar
  • 2cups all-purpose flour
  • ¼cup vegetable shortening (at room temperature)
  • 1½dozen Greek olives, chopped
  • 3cups bread flour (approximately)
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Sprinkle baking sheet, approximately 9½ by 11 inches, with cornmeal and set aside.

  2. Step 2

    Saute prosciutto in 1 teaspoon olive oil over medium heat for 1½ to 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in garlic, fennel seed and pepper. Pour contents into large mixing bowl.

  3. Step 3

    Add hot water, yeast and sugar.

  4. Step 4

    Stir in 1 cup all-purpose flour. Beat in ¼ cup shortening. Add chopped olives.

  5. Step 5

    Add 1 more cup of all-purpose flour. Dough will be sticky at this point. Scrape out onto work surface.

  6. Step 6

    Gradually knead in 3 cups of bread flour until dough is smooth and elastic.

  7. Step 7

    Cover with inverted bowl; rest for 10 minutes.

  8. Step 8

    Roll dough into a 10-inch-by-15-inch rectangle. Cut three strips in rectangle, leaving about ½ inch at end uncut. Braid and pinch bottom end.

  9. Step 9

    Place on prepared baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place until light and doubled in volume - about one hour. When doubled, bake in preheated 400-degree oven until hollow sound is heard when loaf is tapped on bottom.

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