I made this bread the other day, because I just needed a winter pause on all the sweets in my life.
My goal was to bake something that was savory and had a ton of different flavors, with no sugar.
I think I hit the nail on the head here with this one! The Olive and Onion quick bread has no sugar, and is loaded with flavor and texture in every bite. Savory Olive and Onion Quick Bread
I have to confess after I made my test loaf, I added more cheese to my final “real” loaf, as I felt it needed a bit more cheesy texture.
I recommend using a white or yellow onion that is sliced and browned in butter as this leads to creating a good balance of flavor with the olives. You can also benefit from using both green olives with pimentos and black olives for adding texture, saltiness and flavor.
Because I had never experienced this bread before, I was a bit hesitant to take that first bite, I didn’t know what to expect, and was already having sugar withdrawals. Boy was I surprised when I did, this bread is so good, the olives, cheese and onion are in each bite, and the rosemary is right there adding savory and a nice aroma in each bite as well.
I am a huge fan of browned onions, I use them every chance I get, I should have been an onion farmer to save me some money, as this is how often I buy onions, all the time, in each weeks grocery order.
I like to always have on hand a white, yellow, and a few red onions in my vegetable rack. I adore the aroma of cooking onions, the taste of browned in butter onions, raw onions in my salads, and sautéed onions on my eggs. I know sounds weird, you should try it sometime to start your day off on the onion foot!
Because I have a nice little home greenhouse inside for the winter, I am able to grow fresh herbs so I always have them on hand for my cooking and baking needs.
I have an assortment of rosemary, oregano, lemon basil and basil, rosemary being my favorite, it has such a pungent, almost soothing aroma. There is nothing more satisfying than being able to use fresh herbs in my bread baking, the fresh herbs adds more of a flavor punch.
The Savory Olive and Onion Bread uses baking soda as the leavening agent, so there is not a lot of rise that happens during the baking, the bread has a nice dense texture, expect the olives and onions to be the star of the show as they take over the interior of the bread.
A tip when using parchment paper to line the baking pan, make sure it is smooth and straight or you get weird bumps and creases in the baked bread.
Savory Olive and Onion Quick Bread
As you can see, the end of the pan had a crease in the paper, thus giving my bread a creased look on the end. Maybe I could turn this into a baking art form! lol.
Play around with the olives, herbs and cheese, you can use a nice smoky cheese, or a very strong cheese. Perhaps using tarragon, basil and or sage would also be a good variation, along with the multitude of stuffed olives we can choose from.
