Olive Cheese Bread.
The finished product does have quite a strong salty/olive flavor, so for anyone who’s not an olive fan, this might be a little strong. But for everyone else? Yum. It’s great paired with a green salad, or with soup or spaghetti, or as a great appetizer for guests, cut into thin slices.
"Olive Cheese Bread"—the words alone make my mouth water. Let’s make some, shall we?
The Cast of Characters: French bread, green olives, black olives, green onions, butter, real (not low-fat or fat-free) mayonnaise, and Monterey Jack Cheese.
Place one regular-sized can of black olives on a cutting board. (Mine said "6 oz. Dry Wt.")
Give them a rough chop.
Do the same with a 6-oz jar of pimiento-stuffed green olives.
Just give ‘em a rough chop; no need to go crazy.
Now slice two green onions…
Into thin pieces…
Then give them a nice, rough chop all over.
Place 1 stick softened (room temperature) butter into a mixing bowl.
Add 1/2 cup mayonnaise. Please do NOT hurl if you don’t like mayonnaise; I promise, you won’t even know it’s there.
Take 3/4 pound grated Monterey Jack cheese. (I grated this myself, but you can use the pre-packaged stuff if you like.)
Add it to the bowl.
Now add the olives and green onions…
And stir together…
Until thoroughly combined. Use immediately or refrigerate mixture up to two days before using. Now, I know this sounds, like, soooo crazy and all, but if you were to refrigerate this for several hours, it would make a delicious cracker spread. I found this out accidentally; once when I was making this olive bread, I was fat and pregnant and ravenous and I thought if I had to wait for it to bake in the oven I’d die, right there in my kitchen. So I stuck a Ritz into the cold mixture, shoved it in my mouth, and my gestating heart sang for joy. I went ahead and finished the whole bowl and my baby was born a week later. He weighed 89 pounds.
But if you’re not pregnant and ravenous, why not just go ahead and make the olive cheese bread as we originally intended?
Slice the loaf of French bread lengthwise. I should point out that this French bread is the bottom-of-the-totem-pole FOIL BAG French bread from the grocery store. It’s all I had available that day, and it worked just fine. In my experience, however, the finished product is much more delicious and interesting if you use "real" French bread that has a little more crust and bite to it.
Spread the mixture evenly onto both halves of the bread.
It’ll look like WAY too much…but don’t worry. It’ll melt and gradually flatten and soak nicely into the bread.
Depending on the size of your crowd, you can go ahead and place one half of the loaf on a cookie sheet and bake it when you need it: 325 degrees for 25 minutes, or until cheese is totally melted and the top is beginning to turn light brown.
I pulled this out a little too early. While the very ends were nice and golden brown…
The rest of it was still a little pale. The cheese was melted, but it hadn’t adequately baked into the bread.
So I put it back in for about 5 to 7 minutes. That was exactly what it needed.
Hello, lover. You’re beautiful. I officially christen this "Chick Food" because a) Marlboro Man wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot cattle prod b) There is no meat in it. Anywhere. and c) It’s a great accompaniment for a nice green salad, and makes a great meal. For chicks. Men don’t get the whole salad-as-a-meal thing, at least not the men I see on a daily basis. Which doesn’t say much because I only see like three men on a daily basis: my husband, my husband’s brother, and their cowboy. And on the meat-and-potatoes continuum, they’re waaaaay down at the meat-eatin’ end. But still.
Enjoy this! It’s really delish.
Printable Recipe: Olive Cheese Bread
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Quick kitchen tip: FLASH FREEZING.
Do you know about flash freezing? I do it all the time. Now, if I were to put the half-loaf of unbaked olive cheese bread straight into a freezer bag, the soft butter/cheese/mayo mixture would make a heckuvu mess all over the bag. Flash freezing solves that problem. When you flash freeze something, you set it, unwrapped, into the freezer for a short time—twenty minutes or so—until the surface mess hardens enough that it won’t smear all over the freezer bag.
After the twenty minutes, you take it out of the freezer, place it into a freezer bag, and return it to the freezer until you need it at a later time. This is also a great method for freezing twice-baked potatoes or anything else that would otherwise be a mess putting straight into a plastic bag. Try it sometime!
Recipe: Olive Cheese Bread
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Ingredients
- 1 loaf French Bread
- 6 ounces, weight Pimiento-stuffed Green Olives
- 6 ounces, weight Black Olives
- 2 stalks Green Onions (scallions)
- 1 stick Butter, Room Temperature
- 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
- 3/4 pounds Monterey Jack Cheese, Grated
Preparation Instructions
Roughly chop both black olives and pimiento-stuffed green olives. Slice green onions into thin pieces.
Combine butter, mayonnaise, cheese, olives and green onions in a mixing bowl. Stir together until thoroughly combined. Spread mixture onto French bread that has been sliced lengthwise. Bake at 325ºF for 25 to 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and browning.
Mixture can also be refrigerated (up to two days) and used as a dip. Great with crackers.
Source: thepioneerwoman.com
Combine butter, mayonnaise, cheese, olives and green onions in a mixing bowl. Stir together until thoroughly combined. Spread mixture onto French bread that has been sliced lengthwise. Bake at 325ºF for 25 to 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and browning.
Mixture can also be refrigerated (up to two days) and used as a dip. Great with crackers.
Source: thepioneerwoman.com
These look gorgeous ....so tempting too .. Can't wait to try this .. Thank you for the recipe ..
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