Rosemary, check! Olives... check!

Pecan... check! Parmesan yes, tasty cheese... in! Mix these into dry ingredients, add buttermilk, transfer dough into a loaf pan. A few rosemary sprigs here and there, some extra chopped pecan for crunch, flakes of sea salt strewn on top, et hop in the oven.

Especially! If you have an army of kitchen fairies who will do the chopping, grating and slivering for you, I encourage you to give this one a go! I on the other hand, hand chop everything myself... no kitchen fairy around only a cat who prowls about observing my knife technique. Still! I would make this again and again for it is simply scrumptious.


Quick Pecan, Olive & Buttermilk Bread

Makes 1 large loaf

325 gr plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp mustard powder
70 gr grated parmesan
1/2 cup (60 gr) grated good-quality tasty cheese or gruyere
120 gr pecans, toasted and roughly chopped plus extra pecans, sliced, for topping
80 gr pitted black olives, slivered
2 tsp finely chopped rosemary leaves, plus extra sprigs for topping
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten, plus 1 extra yolk mixed with 2 tsp water
1 1/4 cups (310 ml) buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a large (6cm-deep, 13cm x 23cm) loaf pan and line with greased baking paper.

Sift flour, baking powder, soda, mustard and 1 tsp each of salt and pepper in a large bowl. (Personally I used slightly less salt than 1 tsp)

Add cheeses, nuts, olives and rosemary, and mix well with a wooden spoon.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, 2 eggs and buttermilk.

Make a well in flour mixture, add oil mixture and stir to form a thick batter

Scrape into pan and smooth top.

Brush top with egg-yolk mixture, then scatter with extra nuts, rosemary and sea salt.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean (cover loosely with foil if browning too quickly).

Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a rack.



Belinda Jeffery says... that eventhough it is tempting to eat this bread straight away, it tastes better after it has cooled. This is Belinda's recipe by the way... taken from Australian's edition Delicious magazine (Aug 2006, page 40).