ROSEMARY SEA SALT BREAD

Want a super easy recipe that is beautiful enough to impress your family? You've come to the right place. If you show up with this to a family dinner, maybe you won't have to answer questions like, "why are you still single?" or "so, do you have friends other than your dogs?" Your family will be so caught up in this bread that you will be off the hook.

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INGREDIENTS

  • 3 cups of all purpose flour

  • 2 teaspoons of salt

  • ½ teaspoon of active dry yeast

  • 2-3 tablespoons of fresh, chopped rosemary

  • 1 ½ cups warm water

  • Sea salt for topping

  • I’ve found that a cast-iron dutch oven works best — so if you have that available, use it!

  • I use this proofing bowl with the linen cover (I dampen it first) and it works amazingly well. I highly recommend it. If you don’t want to purchase one, I’ve had pretty good results with using a mixing bowl and covering it with a damp kitchen towel!

INSTRUCTIONS

First things first -- roll up your sleeves and grab an apron.

Second, grab a large mixing bowl and whisk together the flour, the salt, yeast, and the chopped rosemary until fully combined.

Next, add in the warm water and mix using a wooden spoon until the water is incorporated and then, using your hands, form roughly into a ball. The dough will be sticky and that's okay.

Put the dough into the proofing bowl with a damp linen covering (or use a mixing bowl and a damp dish towel or plastic wrap over the bowl) and let sit at room temperature for 4-6 hours*

Once the bread is done rising, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Flour a clean surface and remove the dough from the bowl, slowly kneading it briefly while forming it into a ball. Form the dough into a ball by tucking the sides of the dough underneath until it is smooth on top. Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes. Once that time is up, get out a knife and very lightly score the bread with a big X on top.

Place the dough into the dutch oven and put the lid on. I'd suggest using the middle rack. Bake for about 30 minutes with the lid on and then remove the lid and bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the top of the loaf is golden and beautiful and flawless. You may need less time here, depending on your oven, so keep an eye on it. If you see that it needs more time, I suggest 3-minute intervals. You’ve worked hard and the last thing you need is an overdone loaf.

Once done, take the loaf out of the pot and immediately sprinkle sea salt on the top. Once cooled, slice the bread and enjoy!

 *Note: I’ve done some testing on what rise time works best for this bread and my takeaway is this — wait as long as you possibly can. Anywhere from 4-12 hours will do. The longer you wait, the fluffier the bread will be, but the differences aren’t so stark that you’ll have a drastically different loaf if you wait 4 hours instead of 12.

Recipe adapted from: The Baker Upstairs