More cleaning up of the fridge to do. I found myself faced with three cubes of yeast that would go bad tomorrow and a bunch of spicy olives that would only hold for a few more days. So while waiting for the washing machine to be delivered, I managed to bake three types of bread. Rye bread, buckwheat bread with walnuts and – for the first time – white bread. With an olive twist. The idea for the basic recipe comes ssilva at Kulinarična Slovenija. Thanks!

I prepare my fresh yeast slightly differently, not with sugar etc. I mix it with half a cup of cool water and salt and let it sit for 12 to 24 hours. I find this gives me better results. Let’s call it the “salty yeast mixture”.

Dough:

  • 1 lb flour – I deliberately used the cheapest white type to see how far the “frugal” bit of the title can go, so this cost 25 euro cents or 32 US cents
  • salty yeast mixture (cost: exactly the same as the flour in this recipe, actually)
  • some more salt
  • warm water

Extras: 1 cup olives cut in halves, rosemary, 1/4 cup olive oil

Knead the dough well. I mean really well. Keep kneading until the dough is nice, soft and even. I let this rise for 15 minutes and in the meantime cut up 1 cup of spicy olives I’d bought on sale for about 1 euro or about $1.3.

I added the olives and some rosemary as well as 1/4 cup of olive oil and again kneaded well. Then let rise for about 45 minutes.

Place on baking sheet and make a few cuts on top to allow for nice even baking without the crust breaking. Cover up and allow to rise again for 30 minutes, then place in a hot oven. Bake at 200°C for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 180°C and bake for another 50 minutes.

I must say I’m very happy with the result. This bread is truly delicious! Now if I could figure out how much the electric cost for the oven, I could possibly even calculate how much baking the bread cost 🙂 but anyway, the goal was achieved: food not thrown away and enough bread in the freezer for the next couple of weeks, I believe.