Sunday, February 28, 2010

Italian Rosemary Bread

Well, I am a dough baby. Ask anyone in my family. Ever since I was little my fav thing in the world was bread and dough. My cousins and I used to sit around the table at our grandma and grandpas eating nothing but white pasta and bread.

Whats that you say? If I want to lose weight I need to stop eating carbs? Rubbish! What I did need to do is switch over to all whole wheats. This less processed flour is easier and healthier for your body to break down. So I switched to whole wheat. The problem is that I still love bread and getting healthier never seems to be an easy transition on my grocery bill. So I am now going to start making breads too. Alyssa's mum gave us her bread machine...but no matter how simple it is I just don't get it. So until she comes over I am going to hand make bread, starting with this one.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup warm water
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (feels like the weight of a quarter in your hand)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons rosemary
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
3 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon olive oil

1Dissolve the sugar in warm water in a medium bowl, and mix in the yeast. When yeast is bubbly, mix in salt, butter, 1 tablespoon rosemary, and Italian seasoning. Mix in 2 cups flour. Gradually add remaining flour to form a workable dough, and knead 10 to 12 minutes.

Coat the inside of a large bowl with olive oil. Place dough in bowl, cover, and allow to rise 1 hour in a warm location.

Punch down dough, and divide in half. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly grease paper. Shape dough into 2 round loaves, and place on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining rosemary. Cover, and allow to rise 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), with a broiler pan on the bottom shelf. Brush the tops of the bread with a light layer of olive oil or water. Once the oven is ready and hot place your dough on the top shelf. Take a cup of water and pour it into the broiler pan. It should sizzle. This will give you bread a nice crunchy crust.

1 comments:

Jenn said...

Your bread looks yummy! I love my bread machine. I use it to make dough even more often than baking all the way through.