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Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf + KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer Review

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Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf is a delicious crusty loaf dusted with semolina. The perfect accompaniment to soup or Italian food.

Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf - Fab Food 4 All

It’s not every day that you get offered to play with your dream piece of equipment but that’s exactly what happened recently when the lovely people at Kitchen Aid gifted me a beautiful Artisan Stand Mixer in Empire Red.

I immediately knew I wanted to make, some bread, so having a look around my kitchen I came up with this Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf.

I have to say I am blown away by the beauty of the KitchenAid as my old stand mixer was a tad ugly and cumbersome so stayed in a cupboard in the garage and rarely ventured out.

The KitchenAid on the other hand has a smaller footprint and after a little re-organisation of my worktops, I made room for it. This stand mixer was made to show off.

My mum has the same model in a silver grey colour which she treated herself to a few years ago and it goes perfectly with her kitchen. That’s the beauty of these machines they seem to come in every colour you can imagine!

Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf - Fab Food 4 All

So as well as its devilishly good looks that wouldn’t look out of place in an art gallery the KitchenAid seems extremely robust and engineered to last.

My last stand mixer used to scare me a little as the bowl was so very wide at the top that I almost felt drawn in.

Not so with this one though as the bowl is narrower at the top and nice and deep. There’s a lovely plastic bowl guard with a pouring vent which also stops flour from filling your room.

I do remember an afternoon making cakes with my daughter once and on adding the cocoa powder and icing sugar to our mixture the whole room was filled with clouds of dust!

Hence the guard is going to be very useful in avoiding such situations!

Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf - Fab Food 4 All

The KitchenAid is easy to operate with a sliding lever mechanism which you just depress slightly.

The instructions for bread making informed me not to go above setting 2 when kneading and to use setting 1 for mixing the dry ingredients.

I was so at ease with the KitchenAid that I allowed my 12-year-old daughter to make pizza dough in it the following day under supervision.

The dough hook does a great job and the machine seems less noisy than my old one which is also a bonus!

As my stand mixer lived out in the garage we used to make all our bread by hand which is very relaxing and therapeutic but sometimes you just need to get on with other things when you’re pushed for time and I think that’s why I’d made less bread lately.

All that will change now having the Kitchen Aid just there on the worktop, ready for action!

Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf - Fab Food 4 All

I was hoping to try out some more recipes for cakes, meringue or even macarons which have been on my to-do list for such a long time.

However, shortly after the KitchenAid’s arrival, I was struck down with sciatica (the bane of my life). This pretty much floored me for a couple of weeks so I’ve been playing catch-up ever since!

I will follow up though with another recipe and let you know how I’ve found using the Kitchen Aid for uses other than bread.

Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf - Fab Food 4 All

So back to my Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf which I finished off with a dusting of semolina for a change which also highlighted the crisscross pattern beautifully.

My family enjoyed my Olive and Parmesan Con Loaf which we had with a bowl of soup, I also think it would be great with houmous or just dipped in olive oil!

Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf - Fab Food 4 All

More Recipes using the Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer

More Bread Recipes

As I used up the ingredients that I had left I entered my Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf into:

Credit Crunch Munch, which I run with Helen of Fuss Free Flavours, is hosted this month by Manjiri of Travels for Taste.
No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Bready Steady Go – hosted by Utterly Scrummy Food for Families and BakingQueen74 

I’m sure you’ll love this loaf, so leave a comment and rating below. You can also share your images with me by tagging @FabFood4All on social media.

Pin Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf for later!

Olive & Parmesan Cob Loaf Pinterest image.

NB: I was gifted a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer, all opinions are my own and I received no payment

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Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf

Olive and Parmesan Cob Loaf is dusted with semolina and the perfect loaf to have with soup or cold food.
Course Lunch, Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 1 hour 52 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 32 minutes
Servings 8
Author Camilla Hawkins

Ingredients

  • 500 g Strong white flour
  • 25 g Parmesan cheese finely grated
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Soft light brown sugar
  • 7 g Sachet fast action yeast
  • 30 g Green or black olives in oil drained & finely sliced
  • 300 ml Warm water
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil

Instructions

  • Place the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in mixing bowl and with flat beater attached mix on speed 1.
  • Then tip in the cheese and olives and continue mixing until well combined.
  • Replace beater with dough hook and then add 280 mls of water and the oil.
  • If mixture looks a little dry continue to to add more water until a soft dough comes together.
  • Knead the mixture on speed 2 for 5 – 6 minutes.
  • Remove the dough from the bowl.
  • Clean the bowl, lightly oil, place the dough back and cover with cling film
  • Put in a warm, draft free place until dough doubles in size (about 40 – 60 mins).
  • Preheat oven to 200ºC.
  • Knead the dough for another 3 minutes.
  • Tip onto a floured surface and knead into a dome shape.
  • Place on a greased baking tray, cover with greased cling film and allow to rise for 40 minutes.
  • Dust with semolina and using a long sharp knife score across the top in one direction and then the opposite.
  • Place on middle oven shelf and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden and base makes a hollow sound when knocked:-)

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Comments

  1. Catherine

    I hope you don’t mind me posting a comment as I see this is quite an old thread – but I just got my kitchen aid and am a bread-baking newbie! A bit daunted by all the techniques and options but your recipe looks delicious and I think I follow everything, thank you for being so clear! One quick question – at step 12 – how tightly do you wrap the dough on the baking tray, how do you let it rise if it is cling filmed to the tray? Sorry if that’s a silly question! Thank you in advance 🙂

    Reply

    • Camilla

      Hi Catherine, you are just covering the loaf with a sheet of greased cling film and not wrapping it eg as if you were laying a tea towel over it.

      Reply

  4. Barbara

    The kitchen aid changed my baking completely! This looks an amazing loaf to try – perfect for homemade soup!

    Reply

  7. ManjiriK

    Wow look at that loaf , I want to eat it now! And yes major Kitchenaid envy happening right now and that too one in RED woohoo! Just wanted to ask did you powder the semolina before you dusted it? I use semolina a lot to make lots of dishes especially Indian recipes which is my am especially curious.

    Reply

  10. kellie@foodtoglow

    As a person with lifelong arthritis I use my cream Kitchen Aid stand mixer loads. The way it kneads bread and pizza dough makes homemade bakes SO much easier. And of course it looks so pretty! Your bread sounds wonderful, Camilla. I would add more cheese though 😉

    Reply

  17. Choclette

    I have the very same colour which I was lucky enough to win last year. Still can’t quite believe it. I love it, though so far I’ve only used it for bread. Keep meaning to try something fancy like Italian meringue and marshmallows. Your loaf looks perfect and sounds very tasty indeed.

    Reply

  28. Anca

    The loaf looks great, perfect baking, perfect kneading. The stand mixer must be amazing, I’m sure you’ll use a lot. xx

    Reply

  31. Sarah James

    What a gorgeous looking loaf Camilla, it looks delicious. The KitchenAid takes all the hard work out of bread making, I would be lost without mine. Look forward to seeing your next recipe x

    Reply

  35. Roz Goodgame

    absolutely love my Kitchin Aid, wouldn’t be without it, i love the colour range, we have a turquoise blue which is perfect in our kitchen. this bread sounds delicious – i love olives in bread.

    Reply

  39. Julie Slater

    Thank you for this post. I’m fairly new to baking and Father Christmas gifted me an identical KitchenAid. I’m a nervous novice, so will try this forthwith!

    Reply

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