Olive and Artichoke Bread

The story goes like this~  One day in my abundant free time,  I was watching some Australian Master Chef on YouTube.  ( I love Australian shows!  Not only are there the accents, but the people seem so much sweeter and kinder to each other!).  During one the challenges they had to bake loads and loads of bread.  One of which was called an "olive loaf".  "Hmmm," I thought, "That sounds pretty fabulous.  What sounds even more fabulous though, would be an olive and artichoke heart bread!".  So I set out to make this masterpiece.  I was successful.  At least I think I was considering the first loaf was consumed solely by me in a 24 hour period.

The best part about this life changing bread is that all you need is a bowl, a baking sheet, two hands and six ingredients.

Start with mixing 1 and 1/2 cups warm water, 3/4 Tbl. yeast, 2 tsp. salt and 3 and 1/4 cups flour in a big mixing bowl.  Don't bother with a spoon.  Just get your hands in there and goosh away!  (You may recognize this recipe from my pizza post.  I use it for every thing because it is completely wonderful!)

Now all you need is one jar of marinated artichoke hearts and one can of olives.  Chop up the entire jar of artichokes and most of the can of olives.  You could slice of the whole can, but there are always empty little fingers around here who need a small sampling!

Dump them in the dough and mix all together.

Cover and let rise for two hours.

It will look all gorgeous and bubbly like this.

Carefully dump it (with much flour) onto a greased pan and shape however you like.  Be careful not to squish out all the bubbly goodness!

Bake for about 25 min. at 400 degrees.

Mmmmm!  I really, really love this bread!  Hope you enjoy!