Sourdough Muffaletta

I had purchased a jar of olive salad while we were in Florida. It’s good to mix into scrambled eggs, but I bought it mainly to make a muffuletta. I love the meaty, rich taste of a muffaletta once in a while.

The Muffaletta is a great picnic sandwich or a party sandwich for Mardi Gras.

I made the Italian bread starting with a recipe from the King Arthur website. I modified the recipe to use sourdough starter instead of the overnight starter called for in the recipe. I did some other modifications and the bread came out great.

Serves 8

Ingredients

Muffaletta Loaf

• 1 cup active sourdough starter (226g)
• 3 1/2 cups King Arthur all-purpose four (420g)
• 1 cup (227g) lukewarm water (90 to 110 degrees F)
• 1 1/2 (9g) teaspoons of table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 tablespoon water
• Sesame seeds

Sandwich filling

• Infused garlic olive oil
• 1 16 oz jar of olive salad
• 8 oz sliced ham
• 8 oz sliced salami
• 8 oz sliced provolone cheese

Tools:

Medium size bowl, scale (optional), parchment paper, pastry brush, sheet pan or pizza pan, cooling rack, long bread knife, cutting board, something to cover bowl (plate, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, damp towel), instant read thermometer (optional)

Instructions

Bread Loaf

1. In the medium size bowl, mix and then knead the sourdough starter, flour, 1 cup lukewarm water, salt and yeast to form a soft, smooth dough.
2. Leave the dough in the bowl and cover it. Let rise for an hour. Gently deflate the dough, round it into a ball, cover the dough, and let rest for 10 minutes.
3. While the dough is resting, line the sheet pan with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
4. Place the ball of dough onto the parchment lined sheet pan or pizza pan and pat it into a 14 inch circle.
5. Cover with something that won’t stick such as a damp kitchen towel or greased plastic wrap and let rise for an hour at room temperature.
6. Remove cover and brush the 2 tablespoons of water over the dough. Sprinkle sesame seeds generously over the top of the dough round.
7. Place in the center of the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The bread should be a deep golden brown. If using an instant read thermometer, the center of the loaf should read 190 degrees F.
8. Turn off oven and remove sheet pan from oven. Place bread back into the oven and let the bread sit on the oven rack for 3 to 5 minutes to crisp up the bottom crust.
9. Remove the bread from the oven and let cool on a rack for at least an hour before cutting it.

Making the Muffaletta Sandwich

1. Turn the cool bread loaf on its side, like a wheel. Using the bread knife slowly cut the loaf in half across its equator. You will have 2 14 inch rounds, the top and the bottom. I had to keep rolling the loaf as I cut it, as my knife wasn’t long enough to cut through 14”.
2. Once the loaf is sliced, brush the inside of the top with the garlic infused olive oil. I drizzled the oil over the bread and then used my pastry brush to brush the oil around.
3. Spoon the olive salad over the inside of the bottom half of the loaf.
4. Layer the salami over the the olive salad, so that you don’t see any of the olive salad. Layer the provolone cheese over the salami. Layer the ham over the cheese.
5. Cover the bottom with the meats and cheese with the top of the loaf. You now have one enormous sandwich!
6. Slice the loaf in half, then slice each half into quarters. Slice each quarter into an eighths. The King Arthur web site suggests cutting the sandwich loaf a different way. “Slice in 2″ wide strips, then in 4″ pieces to serve.”

Notes:

Store any leftovers wrapped in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can heat it up by placing in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Next time I make this, I will split the dough into two pieces and make two loaves.