My uncle has beed very supportive of my baking journey and for years has been supplying me with cookbooks and supplies to grow and experiment with. For my birthday this year, he gifted me a pair of gorgeous dutch ovens, which I've always wanted to learn how to bake bread in. I decided to start simple with my first attempt and just add some rosemary from my garden to flavor it, but I tell you what, that bread could be put on the table at any fine dining restaurant! It came out crusty on the outside, but soft and chewy in the middle, and was the perfect addition to the chili I made for dinner that night, as it sopped up all the leftovers at the bottom of the bowl. If you have a dutch oven, I highly recommend you take some time to bake some bread in it if you haven't already. It's life changing.
Servings: 8-12
Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 2 hrs 45 min
INGREDIENTS:
4 1/2 cups flour
3 tsp (1 1/2 packets) instant yeast
2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
2 1/4 cup lukewarm water
DIRECTIONS:
Combine flour, salt, yeast, and rosemary in a large mixing bowl.
Add the water to the flour mixture, and stir until a soft, sticky dough has formed.
Coat a large bowl with olive or vegetable oil. Transfer the dough to the oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1 hour in a warm area of the kitchen.
After the dough has been rising for about 40 minutes, place a 6 quart dutch oven, with it's lid, into the oven and set the oven to 450 degrees F.
Once the dough has risen for an hour, tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for about 3 minutes, adding more flour if it becomes too sticky to handle, but being careful not to fry the dough out.
Lay out a large piece of parchment paper and sift a light dusting of flour over the top. Transfer the ball of dough to the top of the parchment paper.
Dust the top of the dough with flour. Using the parchment paper as a sling, lift the dough and set it in another bowl, cover the bowl, with the dough and parchment paper inside, with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 30 more minutes.
Carefully take out the hot dutch oven from the oven and remove the lid.
Remove the plastic wrap from the bowl and using a clean razor or sharp knife, score the top of the bread dough. If you're unsure how to do this, just slash a large X on top of the dough.
Using the parchment paper as a sling again, place the dough, parchment paper and all, into the hot dutch oven. Place the lid on top and return to the hot oven and bake for 45 minutes.
Remove the lid and bake another 10 minutes.
When finished baking, lift the bread out of the dutch oven, again using the parchment paper, and place the bread on a wire rack to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing!
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