Rosemary Artisan Bread

Rosemary artisan bread has a mouth-watering rustic appearance with a golden-brown crust that is crispy and slightly chewy. The interior crumb is soft and airy, showcasing irregular and uneven pockets. This type of bread is not only a culinary delight but also a feast for the senses, offering a symphony of flavors and aromas that elevate the bread-eating experience.

This is a super tasty loaf that is baked in a dutch oven. This recipe takes approx 3 hrs 45 min to do.

Ingredients

14 2/3 oz Bread Flour

1 tsp Active Rise Yeast

12 oz Room Temp Water

Pinch of Sugar

4 Tbl Olive Oil

1 1/4 tsp Table Salt

3 Tbl Fresh Rosemary Chopped

1 Tbl Sea Salt

(I also threw in 4 cloves of roasted garlic)

Cooking Spray

Instructions

Activate yeast by putting it in a large bowl with the water, the sugar, and a little over half the flour. Mix and cover with a tea towel. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

Add in the rest of the flour, the oil, and the salt. Mix that all together. It will be a shaggy, wet dough. Let that rest of 10 minutes.

Add in the aromatics. 2 1/2 Tbl of the Rosemary and 1/2 Tbl of the Sea Salt (you’re saving the rest of the top) and the garlic, if you’re using it.

Now we’re going to start the folding process - this is in lieu of kneading - wet your hands and grab a couple of inches of one side of the dough, shake it a bit, and fold that across the dough. Turn your bowl 1/8th turn and repeat. Do this until you’ve completed one rotation (it might be 6/7 folds) . Cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let that rest for 20 minutes. You are going to repeat this step 5 times.

Once you’re done with the folding, oil down your bench (or a cutting board) and pour out the dough. Shape it into a boule (a round shape). Put your dough on a good sized piece of parchment paper, spray some plastic wrap and cover the dough. It’s also good to cover that with a tea towel as well. Let that rest for 30 minutes.

In the meantime put your dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.

CAREFULLY take out the dutch oven and put the dough WITH THE PARCHMENT into the dutch oven. Spread a little oil on the top and sprinkle with the remaining rosemary and sea salt. Score your bread, put the top back on the dutch oven and bake.

Covered 40 min - Uncovered 15 - 20 min. Now, my oven can run hot and I took mine out after I took the lid off for 5 minutes and it was burned a bit on the bottom. All ovens run different, so keep an eye on it. When baked fully, it should reach 190 degrees.

Once it’s done, take it out of the dutch oven using the parchment and let it cool down on a rack for 10 minutes before cutting into it.