Rosemary Bread

One of my favorite hobbies is to just get in the kitchen and try making completely new things. This past weekend, I tried my hand at homemade bread. Making bread has always intimidated me. It just sounds like such a “professional baker” thing to make. Especially making bread without a bread maker. In my mind, making bread without a bread maker is just something that home cooks don’t do. I have the weirdest limitations on things in my mind.

Regardless, this weekend I decided to throw out my limitations, and I set out to make my own bread. But I couldn’t just make regular bread, I wanted it to have tons of flavor, so I decided on a rosemary bread. Guess what? Making this bread, even without a bread maker, was a breeze. And the end result? Oh boy, it puts just about any restaurant or store bought bread to shame. The moral of the story is, you need to make this bread!

Printable Recipe
Makes 4 small loaves

ingredients:
1 1/4-ounce packet active dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for brushing
2 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons rosemary
1 teaspoon fine salt
coarse salt, to taste

instructions:
Mix together the yeast, sugar, and 1/4 cup water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let sit about 5 minutes, or until it starts to turn foamy.

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, the flour, 1 1/2 tablespoons rosemary, the fine salt, and the remaining warm water. Stir using the dough hook of a stand mixer until a dough forms. If you don’t have a dough hook, you can stir with a wooden spoon.

Need with the dough hook for about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Alternatively, you can knead the dough by hand.

Coat a large bowl with cooking spray, add the dough, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise for 2 hours.

Flour a work surface, and divide the dough into four even pieces, forming into rounded square pieces. Coat two baking sheets with cooking spray, and place two pieces of dough on each sheet.

Allow to rise, uncovered, for an additional two hours, then bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Brush the bread with the remaining olive oil, and top with the remaining rosemary and the coarse salt.