Description
An easy homemade crusty bread recipe with roasted garlic and fresh rosemary!
Ingredients
FOR THE ROASTED GARLIC:
- 1 head garlic
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- salt to taste
FOR THE BREAD:
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon honey or sugar
- 1 1/4 cups warm water (about a hundred degrees Fahrenheit)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 2 Tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary
- 8-10 roasted garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 3 cups (360 grams) All-Purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
FOR THE ROASTED GARLIC:
- Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Trim the top off the head of garlic to expose the cloves inside.
- Place garlic in a small lidded baking dish.
- Drizzle garlic with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
- Cover garlic and roast for 30-45 minutes or until cloves are soft and lightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
FOR THE BREAD: Make the dough & first rise (1 Hour)
- Combine yeast, honey, and warm water in a large mixing bowl (you can also use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook!) Let the yeast proof for about 5 minutes until the mixture is foamy.
- Add salt, rosemary, and chopped roasted garlic to the bowl.
- Add flour to bowl a bit at a time and stir with a wooden spoon or stiff spatula until all flour is incorporated and ingredients have just come together to form a slightly shaggy dough.
- Drizzle dough with olive oil and turn the dough over to coat all sides. Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise on the counter for about 1 hour or until dough has doubled in size.
Shape the dough and final rise (30 minutes)
- When dough has doubled in size, lightly flour a large cutting board.
- Tip the dough out of the bowl and onto the cutting board. DON'T PUNCH THE DOUGH DOWN! We want to preserve all those nice air bubbles.
- Pull each corner of the dough into the center of the loaf one at a time as if you're folding an envelope. Repeat this process 4-5 times until dough feels relatively stiff, then flip the dough over and lightly twist while pulling it towards you across the cutting board until you have a nice round loaf. (Watch our Easy Crusty French Bread video to see how we do this!)
- Flour a proofing basket or a small mixing bowl and place your loaf into it seam-side down. Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise for 30 minutes.
Heat the oven
- While your bread does its final rise, place an empty Dutch oven into your oven and heat to 450 degrees F.
Bake!
- When the oven is hot, you're ready to go! Use oven mitts to pull the Dutch oven out and remove the lid.
- Tip your bread dough gently out of the proofing basket back onto your floured cutting board. The seam side should face UP this time - that's what gives it a nice crackly look on top! You can tip the bread onto a piece of parchment paper here to make it easier to lift the bread in and out of your Dutch oven if you like.
- VERY CAREFULLY (no burning yourself!) place the bread seam side up into your hot Dutch oven.
- Put your oven mitts back on, place the lid onto your Dutch oven, and slide the whole thing back into your hot oven.
- Cook bread for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove the lid from your Dutch oven. The bread should be crusty and lightly browned. Continue cooking, uncovered, for 10-20 minutes more until the bread has deepened in color and you have a beautiful browned crust.
- When the bread is done, use oven mitts to pull the pot out of your oven.
- Use a long spatula to lift the bread out of the Dutch oven and onto a cooling rack. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting into it.
- Slice, slather with butter, and enjoy!
Notes
Measuring Flour. If possible, use a baking scale here to measure your flour by weight (in grams)! No baking scale? No worries - use the cup measurements, but make sure you measure your flour correctly by scooping and leveling.
Ingredients and Equipment. We love our 5 1/2 quart Le Creuset Dutch oven here! We've also had great luck with this budget-friendly Dutch oven. If you're worried about the plastic knob on your Le Creuset melting or breaking at high heat, you can replace it with a metal knob for relatively cheap! As always, please check the care instructions on your equipment. King Arthur Flour is our go-to flour for all our baking needs.
Use a piece of parchment paper to make it easier to lift your loaf in and out of your hot Dutch oven.
No Dutch oven? No problem! Check out our favorite tried-and-true ways to bake crusty bread without a Dutch oven in this tutorial.
You can double this recipe if you like - just keep an eye on the bread as it bakes and know that you may have to extend the bake time! I generally find an extra 5-10 minutes of bake time with the lid on and an extra 5 minutes or so with the lid off is plenty for a double loaf.
Storage. Enjoy this bread within a few hours of baking and store any leftovers in the fridge or freezer once sliced. Refresh the leftovers by popping them in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 5-10 minutes or until just warmed through. Once sliced, this bread will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days. The bread may dry out as it sits, but popping leftover slices into the toaster for a few minutes will crisp it right back up! Freeze sliced bread in an airtight container or airtight bag for 2-3 months and defrost as needed.
Additions and Substitutions. This recipe is very forgiving - mix it up however you like! Add more or less of the roasted garlic and fresh rosemary if you like. Use 1 Tablespoon dried rosemary in place of fresh. Use thyme (fresh or dried) in addition to or in place of the rosemary. Add 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese if you like. Substitute 1/2 cup of wheat or rye flour for 1/2 cup of the all purpose flour if you like. Be sure to also check out our basic crusty bread and crusty asiago bread recipes!