Monday, November 9, 2009

Olga's Bread


Every time I visit my family in Grand Rapids there are places I always have to visit to get that food that I can't get in Florida. Olga's Kitchen is one of them. It's Greek inspired and they make their own flat bread, slightly sweet, Olga bread. They have the Original Olga, which has the meat that is in a Gyro, Three Cheese Olga, Veggie Olga, Burger Olga, you name it. Served with Olga sauce (which seems like plain yogurt to me). I searched for copy cat recipes and found a few (they were pretty much the same recipe). Great! I wanted to try it. Well they recipe has you scald the milk, combine yeast, water, sugar & set aside. Then mix the dough, knead, plastic wrap, rise, punch down.....
Okay you get the idea. My first problem is scalding milk, I don't know what I'm doing there. Then I found this easy one on The Recipe Link.
In Reply to: Olga's kitchen bread posted by Julie on May 11, 1999 at 20:20:34:

1 cup milk, 1/4 cup honey,1/4 cup margarine, 1 tsp. salt, 1 pkg. yeast, 1/4 cup warm water, 1 tsp. sugar, 4 cups flour, 1 egg.
edited to add a little better instructions:
In the bread machine I first add:
1 cup milk (use what ever milk you have I've used 2%)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup butter (I try to get it at room temp, if not cube it or soften a little in microwave)
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup warm water (in the regular recipe they use the warm water and sugar to activate the yeast separately, I don't find you need to do this, but I still use the sugar and water to get the liquid amount right)
Then I add the dry ingredients and try to keep the salt away from the yeast.
4 cups flour
1 tsp yeast (the yeast I use I get it in bulk baggie and I found 1 tsp seems to work okay, you can use more if you find what works for you.) The last time I made it it didn't raise all the way when the dough setting was over and my machine beeped. I left it in for a little while longer until I finished dinner and it came up fine! You can dust a little more flour in the mixing segment if it is sticking to the side too much, but I leave it still a little sticky. You can make what ever sizes that works for what you want to use it for. Hope this helps.
I used bread machine with the above. After one rise, punch down, divide into 16 pcs. Roll each into a thin circle, about 8 in. in diameter. heat a large dry skillet on med. Use no oil. bake each side about 15 secs. Cool and store in plastic bag. It's my favorite bread.

Yahoo, a bread machine one, now this one I wanted to try what did I have to loose? The only things I changed was butter instead of margarine, and 2 tsp of yeast (I didn't have the packages of yeast). I put the liquids in first,(room temp), flour and yeast on top.
The dough is a little sticky when it came out of the bread machine. I cut it in half after I punched it down. Put half in an oiled bowl. Then divide the rest into 8 pieces, I couldn't really use a rolling pin, I think I need one of those little ones they use to roll out pot stickers or empanadas. Plus it sticks to the rolling pin and I had to keep oiling it. So I use the wooden dough cutter to flatten it, then did the rest with my hands. I couldn't get a perfect round, but I liked the more oblong shape for sandwiches anyway.
I picked it up scraping it up off the beard with the dough cutter. I oiled my cutting board that I used to roil it out on.
I did bake mine a little longer than the 15 seconds, but that's the way I liked it. I guess if you like it softer to roll up you can bake it the recommended time.
The first time I made them it was so hot I was tired of standing over the hot stove so I just made them onto rolls. They were good too.

So I've made them three times already and my family really likes them. They get easier as you get used to shaping them. You can do smaller ones if you want to use it as a top & bottom. Or longer if you want to fold it. This is what I did. They taste good any way. My daughter eats them warm right out of the pan. It is good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner for that matter.

I like them for lunch, I couldn't decide what mustard to use. I put tomato, sprouts, blue cheese, avocado.
Nope, added Bacon, yogurt, sprinkled with paprika, Graham Marsala, sea salt flakes from The Meadows.

I swapped the blue cheese for goat cheese.
Lots of cheese. Yum.. What would you use to make your Olga bread sandwich? Wade added green olives to his. I want to make the three cheese one next and warm it up! Maybe pizza!

16 comments:

  1. Oh, those look like the pitas I ate in Greece! Delicious!

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  2. That looks so good! I had to ask my mom a while back how to scald milk when one of my recipes called for it. She said that you just heat it up until it starts getting those little tiny bubbles along the edge of the pan, but don't let it boil. It worked fine when I did that. They look like they would be great for a pizza with feta and maybe some kalamata olives.:)

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  3. These look like the Indian naan bread! The sandwich looks yummy!

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  4. TKW - ty, it was worth trying.

    Laura - Thanks for the tip, I might have to do the other recipe to see what the difference might be. I think a pizza with feta and kalamata would be great!

    petite nyonya - I does look like Indian Naan bread, and it would taste great with hummus! Thanks, and thanks for visiting my food blog!

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  5. I agreed with petite nyonya, looks like naan bread or roti prata (refer my post under Label~Prata).

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  6. Lyndsey, I think they've name it out already 'roti naan'. This is best to serve with hot curry or dhall. Probably, you can try it out sometime. I wish I can have one right now. haha... Cheers. =D

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  7. Oh, I admire those who make bread! I am not very motivated to do so here in Paris becuase I have seven bakeries within walking distance from my home, but the truth is that I do not like the feeling of dough ...
    Well, I'd like you to check my blog, I have awarded you the Honest Scarp Award - and start thinking what ten truths you're going to tell!

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  8. Anncoo, yes it does!

    Kristy, that's a good one "roti naan" bread. It would be great with curry and I was just looking at my dahl recipes.

    Laura, thank you for the award and I wouldn't bake either if I were you. I usually have an aversion to yeast breads, but this one was safe because you don't let it rise again.

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  9. It looks alot like indian naan bread which is totally yummy when fresh, so I'm sure there is just as fab. Love the sandwich you made from it :D

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  10. Thank you, it was yummy!

    It does look like naan. I checked what ingredients were in it and they are simular.

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  11. You did a great job with the bread! Thanks for sharing :)

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  12. Yum! I can just imagine how wonderful a sandwich would be on this hot bread!

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  13. That looks really good. Thanks for sharing the recipe :)

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  14. looks so good!

    Amanda
    softandstiffpeaks.blogspot.com

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  15. So many comparisons to naan. Just to be clear, the experience of Olga bread is really nothing like naan. We eat both regularly here.

    Olga bread is a soft, sweet flat bread (even using the term pita seems incorrect somehow). Naan is thinner, less sweet, and perfect when kissed by fire.

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  16. Sooo many comparisons to naan. Just to be clear to the uninitiated: Olga bread is really nothing like naan--except perhaps in that they are both flat breads.

    We eat plenty of both in our house, and love them for very different reasons. Olga bread is soft and very sweet. Naan is thin, much less sweet, and perfect when kissed by fire. The Olga bread pairs well with the bite of the yogurt sauce that comes on most Olga sandwiches at the restaurant. I think naan is much better with curry or makhani.

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