Crusty Artisan Bread with Rosemary & Sea Salt
A local restaurant serves the most wonderful rosemary bread in their complementary bread basket. They give you a large slice and charge $1.50 for extra slices. I always want another slice but somehow manage to abstain.
After the last trip to the restaurant, I decided it was high time to try to duplicate their rosemary bread. I researched several recipes and settled on this one. It’s not quite the same as the one the restaurant serves, but it is spectacularly good in its own right. It’s so good that I don’t feel the need to keep looking.
How good is it, you ask? It’s so good that I told my husband not to leave me alone in the room with the bread, the toaster, butter, and a knife. It’s so good that if he took the last piece, I wouldn’t speak to him for a week. It’s so good that if one of the kids took the last piece, I’d consider disinheriting them.
Have I convinced you to make this bread? 🙂
Crusty Artisan Bread with Rosemary & Sea Salt
Makes 3 loaves
Ingredients
- 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off (preferably King Arthur; see notes)
- 4 tsp. kosher salt
- 2 tbl. fresh rosemary, chopped
- 1 1/2 tbl. instant/rapid-rise yeast (see notes)
- 3 cups lukewarm water (no need to be exact but lukewarm is about 100° F)
- Cornmeal, for dusting the pan
- Maldon sea salt for topping before baking
Directions
In a very large (6-quart) bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, rosemary, and yeast.
Add the water and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is uniformly moist, without any patches of flour. The dough should be sticky and conform to the shape of the bowl. If your dough is too dry, add a few tbl. more warm water. If it’s too wet, add a few tbl. of flour.
Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter in a warm spot for 2 hours. If you plan to bake a loaf immediately, proceed to the next step. Otherwise, place the bowl of dough in the refrigerator to be used over the next 14 days. (Once refrigerated, the dough will shrink back a bit; that’s okay. Do not punch down the dough at any point, and keep it loosely covered with plastic wrap.)
Dust a sturdy baking sheet with cornmeal.
Dust the surface of the dough and your hands lightly with flour. Pull out one-third of the dough and coat the outside lightly with flour (you don’t want to incorporate more flour into the dough, you just want to be able to handle it). Gently work the dough into a smooth ball, stretching the surface and tucking the ends underneath, adding more flour as needed so it doesn’t stick to your hands. I found that my bench scraper was helpful during this process. (Don’t overwork the dough; this process should only take about 30 seconds.) Put the dough ball onto the prepared baking sheet and let it rest at room temperature, uncovered, for about 40 minutes. (If the dough has been refrigerated, allow it to rise for 60 minutes, or up to 90 minutes if you want a more open and airy crumb structure.) The dough will rise a bit. It may also spread/flatten a bit; that’s okay.
Preheat the oven to 450° F. Set one rack in the lowest position of the oven and one rack in the middle position. Place a metal pan (any metal cake pan or broiler pan will work; just don’t use glass) on the bottom rack. (You will fill this with water later to create steam in the oven).
Dust the dough with flour. Using a sharp knife, make a few 1/2-inch-deep slashes in the dough. Sprinkle the tops of the bread with a dusting of the Maldon sea salt.
Slide the baking sheet with the dough into the oven, and carefully fill the metal cake pan with one cup of hot tap water. (Try to do this quickly so as not to let heat out of the oven.) Bake until the loaf is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
This bread is really, really good fresh out of the oven on the day it is made. I, however, think it is even better toasted with some European butter like Kerry.
Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The dough can be portioned into thirds and frozen in airtight plastic containers for up to 1 month. Defrost the dough in the refrigerator overnight, then shape, rest and bake as usual. The baked loaves can also be frozen whole or sliced: Wrap in a zip-top freezer bag and freeze for up to 1 month. (If you plan to use slices one at a time, place pieces of parchment between them so they don’t stick.) To thaw, take the bread out of the freezer and let it come to room temperature on the countertop. Reheat in a 350°F oven until warmed through, about 10 minutes.
Notes
Active dry yeast may be used instead of instant/rapid-rise yeast, however, the dough will take longer to rise. To give active dry yeast a boost, you can dissolve it in the lukewarm water and let it sit until frothy, about 10 minutes. After that, add it to the flour and salt, and proceed with the recipe.
I used King Arthur flour, which is higher in protein than some other all-purpose flours. If using a flour with a lower protein content, such as Gold Medal, you will likely need to add a few more tbl. of flour.
Source: An adapted recipe from Once Upon a Chef