Homemade bread. It's one of those things that I've always associated with history, or people with too much time on their hands, or Little House on the Prairie. People talk about it being tricky, and yeast being scary and a billion other things that end up equating to "Why the heck would you ever make your own bread? Haven't you heard of a bakery? Or a grocery store?" And yet, one weekend last year, I thought that as a prime example of me trying to do more cooking, I should attempt bread.
So, being me, I scoured the bajillion cooking blogs that I follow, and searched out recipes that claimed to be easy. And didn't require traditional kneading. And I even found tips on cooking with yeast! And lo and behold, I found this recipe. A Rustic Rosemary Garlic Loaf (found on the Good Life Eats blog) that looked both easy and tasty. I tried it. The roommate and I both loved it. And Rosemary Garlic bread (with a few changes from the original recipe) became a staple every few weeks.
Now, I'm not going to lie, this is not one of those fast breads that you can prepare after work before dinner. This is a bread that's perfect for a day when you're doing laundry, or need to run out a bit for errands. I also (yesterday) bought Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice and I think that might change my approach to bread and give me lots of new ideas for the future. I've seen it raved about other places. So once I've gotten to absorb it a bit I'm thinking of a more detail filled bread post, talking about yeast and good tips for bread making. But today, I shall leave you with the Rosemary Garlic bread and a few quick things that might help make trying bread a little easier.
Things to Note:
In December my awesome parents got me the super amazing gift of a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, and since then I've been using that to mix and knead my dough. However, for the first year I made this bread and others I did it by hand, with a whisk and my hands and that worked perfectly well so don't be intimidated if you don't have a mixer.
I also commandeered my mother's old pizza/baking stone and have started using that for the past few weeks, but it also is totally possible to use a cookie sheet.
Yeast likes the temperature to be around 70 degrees Fahrenheit for it's initial rise. I don't know about you, but in winter my apartment isn't generally that warm, so to help create a warmer place for the dough to rise I have tried and used all of the following: Turn the oven on the lowest it will go and then putting the bowl on top of the stove. Take a shower and put the covered bowl in the bathroom sink while you shower and leave it there afterwards so the humidity can work on it. Leave in in the laundry room while the washer/dryer are going.
And now....onwards to the recipe!!!
Rustic Rosemary Garlic Loaf
Ingredients:
(2) Cups Warm Tap Water (110 degrees)
(1/4) Cup Olive Oil
(2-1/2) Tsps Active Dry Yeast
(5-1/4) Cups All Purpose Flour
(6) Cloves of Garlic - Minced
(3) Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary - Chopped
(4) Tsps Salt
(1/4) Cup Flour for Dusting Loaves
Cornmeal to Dust Pans
Time:
Prep (including rise) - Approximately 3.5 hours total
Cook - 40-50 minutes
To Do:
- Chop Rosemary and Garlic
- Fill a 2-cup measuring cup with the warm water, and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let it sit there for 3 minutes and then whisk to dissolve yeast.
-Whisk the oil into the water yeast mixture.
- In the bowl of your mixer, or another large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, garlic, and rosemary. Add the water-yeast-oil mixture and whisk together. If using a mixer, use the dough hook and knead until everything is just combined. If the mixture seems really sticky, add additional flour 1 tablespoon at a time.
- Oil another large bowl (at least double the amount of the dough) and put the dough into it. Flip the dough over so the top is oiled and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise (ferment) until it is doubled, which should be approximately 2 hours at room temperature (70 degrees).
- When the dough has risen, scrape out onto a floured surface and press it to deflate.
- Split dough into (2) equal pieces and work on them one at a time. Starting with the first, press it into a rough square. Starting from the side facing you, tightly roll the dough away from you. Rotate the cylinder 90 degrees, and roll it up again. You want the roll to be tight so there is some surface tension (it should feel taught). Turn it seam side down, and repeat with the other dough piece.
- Cover the cylinders with a kitchen towel, and let them rest for 5-10 minutes. This helps make the dough more elastic so you can roll it into its final shape
- Uncover the loaves, and roll them to make them longer, taking care to point the ends (it should look like a torpedo)
- Dust (2) pans with cornmeal and put one loaf on each. Dust the tops with flour, and cover them with a towel or plastic wrap. Let them rise until doubled, approx 1 hour.
-About half hour before you are planning to bake the bread (or longer depending on how your oven heats), preheat the oven to 500 degrees. You want 1 rack in the middle of the oven, and the other at the lowest level. Place another pan or pizza stone on the low shelf to absorb excess heat.
- Right before you put the bread in the oven, take a sharp knife and cut 3-4 diagonal slashes on the top of the load. Place the loaves on the middle rack of the oven, and lower the heat to 450 degrees.
- After 20 minutes, lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 20-30 minutes. You want the internal temperature (using your probe thermometer) to be around 200 degrees. You also can lift the loaf (using oven mitts of course) and tap the bottom of it. If it sounds hollow it's done. I had never tried this until yesterday, and it actually works!!
-Take loaves out of the oven and set to cool. Do your best to be patient and not eat it right out of the oven since a) it's 200 degrees, and b) while still hot bread can taste kind of gummy, and then you'll feel like you didn't do it right even though you did. So wait about 20 minutes/ half hour and then enjoy!
Let me know how your turns out!
Also, upon request from my friend Di...here's a page from a notebook I'm trying to keep with recipes I make often (yes that actually is my handwriting)
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