Olive Star Bread

1. Put the flour, salt, and yeast into a large mixing bowl, making sure that the salt isn’t touching the yeast. Add the olive oil and water and stir together until you have a rough dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and leave knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is soft and stretchy.
2. Swirl some olive oil around the mixing bowl and place the dough back in. Cover and leave to prove in a warm place for around an hour or until doubled in size.
3. In the meantime, make the olive filling by placing all the ingredients in a blender and whizzing until smooth.
4. Once the dough has proved, place it onto a clean surface and knead for a few seconds to knock some of the air out. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and shape into small balls.
5. Next, lightly flour the surface and a rolling pin and roll out each of the four pieces of dough into circles. Try and get them as large as you can and about 0.5cm thick. Cover the pieces of dough you are not working with so that they don’t dry out.
6. Place on of the circles onto a lined baking tray, then spread about ⅓ of the olive filling on top, making sure to push it all the way to the edge. Add the next circle of dough on top, spread with the filling and then repeat with the third circle. Finally place the final circle on top.
7. Next, take the lid of a jar and place it into the middle of the top circle of dough. The piece of dough under the lid will stay intact, whilst the rest is sliced to shape the bread into a star.
8. Take a sharp knife and cut the dough surrounding the lid of the jar into 16 pieces that are roughly even in size. The best way to do so is to do four cuts, one at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o´clock to divide the circle into quarters. Then cut each quarter in half and then cut each piece of dough in half again, giving you 16 pieces in total.
9. To shape, take any two of the strands and twist them away from each other by 360°. Then pinch the ends together to create a point. Repeat with the remaining strands to create an eight-pointed star.
Loosely cover the star bread with clingfilm and leave it to prove in a warm place for another 30-45 minutes.
10. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
11. Once proved again, use a pastry brush to gently brush the bread with some olive oil. Press the pine nuts into the middle part of the star bread to decorate.
12. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. Cover the bread with tin foil if it is browning too quickly but not fully baked yet.
13. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!