Rosemary bread

One of my best friends asked me to do a post on rosemary bread.  Never one to say no, I started my Internet search for the perfect bread.  Oh did I ever find it! The Food Network rarely fails me.  This bread is soft, chewy, moist and has a delightful rosemaryness (is that a word???) without being too overpowering.  And I can't forget a magnificent salty top!  TGIM isn't a fan of rosemary but somehow he managed to eat almost 2 loaves. 

Recipe from The Food Network. 



 Here's what you need.... flour, sugar, salt, olive oil, yeast, water, and fresh rosemary.

 Stir 1 1/4 tsp (or 1 packet if that's what you use)  2 tsp sugar and 1/4 c warm water in your mixer bowl.  Or in a regular bowl if you're going to hand mix/knead your bread.

 Let that sit for about 5 minutes to get nice and foamy.  Meanwhile chop up 2 Tbl fresh rosemary.

 Add 1 Tbl olive oil to your yeast/sugar/water mixture

 Add to that 2 1/2 cups of flour.

 Then add 1 1/2 Tbl rosemary

 Already this smells wonderful

 Add 1 Tsp salt.  The recipe says to add fine salt but I don't have any so I used kosher and it was just fine.

 Lastly, add 3/4 cup warm water

 With your dough hook, stir until a dough forms

 like this

 Then knead for a few more minutes (about 5) until the dough is smooth and doesn't stick to the side of your bowl.  See all those lovely bits of rosemary?  My mouth is watering already.

Here's where I forgot the camera.  Oil a metal bowl and add the dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours, until doubled.  Punch down and divide into 4 equal balls.  Form each ball into a loaf and place on a greased baking sheet.

Let rise uncovered on the baking sheet until each loaf has doubled, another 2 hours

 Preheat the oven to 400 and bake the loaves for about 10 minutes, brush with olive oil and sprinkle the remaining rosemary and some kosher salt on top.  Continue baking another 7-10 minutes.

And you will have this! 

At first I wasn't going to post this recipe because I forgot to take pictures of a few of the steps AND the pictures that I did take aren't that great.  The lighting in my kitchen stinks and I have stuff everywhere.  Then I thought.... I'm not The Pioneer Woman, who by the way I love love love, and my pictures don't have to be perfect.  They're here to give you an idea of how the process looks, not so much to entice you into making whatever it is that I've posted.  I figure if you're here reading, you actually might want to make this bread no matter what my pictures look like.  Don't let my poor photographs stop you!  Enjoy your time in the kitchen.