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Baking

No-Knead Olive & Rosemary Loaf

You will stir this dough for ninety seconds and then do nothing about it for fourteen hours. That nothing is the recipe. The fridge-rise builds the flavour a mixer would have to fake, and the hot pot turns the surface to glass.

PAWords by Priya Anand · 21 September 2026
Sliced sourdough loaf with dark crackly crust and olive pieces on a wooden board

Total time

1 days

Serves

12

Level

Medium

Reading

7 min

01

The Recipe

Ingredients

  • 500g strong white flour
  • 7g instant yeast
  • 2 tsp fine salt
  • 400ml lukewarm water
  • 150g mixed olives, pitted and halved
  • 1 tbsp chopped rosemary
  • 1 tbsp semolina or flour, for dusting

Serves 12 · 1 days in total

Method

  1. 01

    Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Pour in the water and stir with a wooden spoon until a shaggy, sticky dough forms. Do not knead it.

  2. 02

    Cover the bowl and leave it on the counter 12–18 hours, until it is domed, bubbly and smells faintly of beer.

  3. 03

    Tip it onto a floured surface, scatter the olives and rosemary over the top, and fold it over itself four times to tuck them in.

  4. 04

    Shape into a round by tucking the seams underneath. Rest on a parchment-lined tray, covered, for 1 hour.

  5. 05

    Heat the oven to 475°F/240°C with a heavy lidded pot inside. Dust the loaf, slash the top deeply, and lower it into the hot pot.

  6. 06

    Bake 25 minutes with the lid on, then 20 minutes off, until the crust is mahogany and the base sounds hollow when knocked.

A note from the kitchen

The long counter rise does the work a mixer usually does. Do not be tempted to shortcut it.

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