Name: Olive Ham and Cheese Loaf
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 1 cup all-purpose flour; 1 ½ tsp baking powder; ¼ tsp salt; ½ tsp pepper; ½ cup ham (cubed); 1 cup Kalamata olives (chopped); ⅔ cup Gruyere cheese (shredded); 2 tbsp mint (chopped); 4 large eggs (lightly beaten); 5 tbsp butter (unsalted, melted)

This Olive Ham and Cheese Loaf is packed with incredible flavors. Ham, Gruyere cheese, olives, and a touch of mint send this quick bread right over the edge. It’s almost a meal in itself!

Olive Ham and Cheese Loaf sliced on a cutting board

Who doesn’t love a good quick bread? With this recipe taking only 40 minutes from start to finish, you don’t have time to not make it. Now you might be a little skeptical now about an olive and ham loaf, and I don’t blame you it seemed a little out there to me at first too.

But this loaf is absolutely delicious and nearly a meal all on its own! Now, when I tell you this loaf is loaded, I mean it. The best part about this is that it really is customizable. You can switch up the type of meat, olives, cheese and herbs to really make this recipe your own.

Since this bread had a big salty hit from these olives and a bit from the ham, I decided to go with a lighter and nuttier type of cheese. Gruyere gave it the cheesy goodness I was craving without loading up on too much sodium. You are free to experiment with different types of cheese that you love and are available to you. It’s your loaf, after all!

Ingredients

Flour – Just all purpose flour is all we need today.
Baking powder – The key to a quick bread! This is our leavening agent as opposed to using yeast.
Ham – Pre-cooked and cubed up into smaller bite sized pieces.
Olives – I like Kalmata olives for a salty briny hit, chop these up too to ensure we get even distribution.
Cheese – I chose something mild and creamy today because we’re getting a lot of salt from our olives and ham. Go for something that will balance and mellow those flavors out.
Herbs – We’re using fresh mint today, chopped up for some brightness and freshness.
Eggs – We’re using 4 large eggs today – I know quite a bit but we’re going for a super dense loaf and dense loaves need strong binders.
Butter – Unsalted so as to control the sodium content of our loaf.

Substitutions

You can use 1 cup of self rising flour in place of the flour, baking powder, and salt.
We used Kalamata olives for this recipe, however you can use any type that you like best.
Gruyere cheese can be substituted with any light Swiss cheese.

Olive Ham and Cheese Loaf on a cooling rack

Never Heard Of Quick Bread?

A quick bread is a bread that uses leavening agents other than yeast to rise. That means that we’re going to bake this more like a cake, with baking powder and baking soda. That means no kneading, no rolling, no resting (till it bakes of course) and a way more reliable finished product for our baking novices!

Fear not, unlike cake this loaf won’t be sweet, though I have plenty of recipes for quick sweet breads. This bread though, is packed full of savory drool worthy flavors.

How To Make Olive Ham and Cheese Loaf

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and generously grease a 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray or butter.
Combine the dry ingredients: Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper to a large mixing bowl and combine well. Add the ham, olives, cheese, and mint to the bowl. Mix until everything is evenly coated in the flour mixture. Add the eggs, butter, and mix until well combined.
Bake the loaf: Transfer the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top. Bake the loaf for 30-35 minutes, or until the top turns golden brown. Cool on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes before slicing into it.

Olive Ham and Cheese Loaf on a cutting board

Patience Is Key

The all important rule of thumb when making any loaf is to let it rest after baking. Some swear by leaving them overnight, others by just 1 hour – either way you need to make sure it gets some alone time!

Storing Your Leftover Loaf

This bread can be frozen for up to 2 months. Let it cool completely, slice it to your desired thickness, and store in an airtight freezer bag. Otherwise just toss it in an airtight container and keep in your fridge for up to 4 days.