Mix the water with olive oil and syrup. Reserve.

In a large bowl, combine flour with the yeast and salt. Add the previous water mix little by little, and with a wooden spoon (or other metal-free spoon or spatula), combine until you get a sticky dough.

Dust your work surface with flour and transfer the dough onto it. Knead for 8-10 minutes until it is very smooth, but does not stick to your hands. Try to knead without adding any extra flour until at least 5-6 minutes have passed. After this time, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour and finish kneading until it looks smooth and stops sticking to your work surface and hands. If you have a mixer with a kneading hook just add the dough and let it knead for around 8 minutes, just until it stops sticking to the bowl.

To know if your dough is ready, you can poke it with your finger, and if the cavity pops back out little by little, it is ready to proof.

Grease a large bowl with a little olive oil and place the dough inside. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and leave the dough to proof in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 hour).

Again, dust your work surface with flour. Remove the towel from the bowl and flip it on the dusted surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a large rectangle.

Spread the tomato sauce throughout the dough, sprinkle the cheese on top, as well as the fine herbs. If you decide to add pepperoni and vegan turkey slices, distribute it on top as well (or toppings of choice).

On the longest side of the rectangle, start rolling it as tightly as possible.

Make a cut through the center of the roll, leaving 2-3 cm uncut from one end. Braid the two parts of the roll so that the inner layers are visible on top. If the braiding starts to get a little messy, don't worry, it's part of the process, but if the filling leaks out too much, it means the sauce was too runny or too many toppings were added.

Grease a loaf pan and place the dough braid inside. You can use two spatulas to transfer the braid from the surface to the pan, just so it doesn’t fall apart.

Distribute the olives on top of the braid by sticking them into its layers.

Sprinkle a pinch of fine herbs on top (optionally).

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before taking the bread out of the pan and slicing.

Store in an airtight container in a cool place or in the fridge.