Baking: Garlic and Rosemary Hearthbreads

Lately I've been getting more into bread making. There is something very satisfying in the slightly time consuming but none too difficult process of baking fresh bread. The kneading is methodical and therapeutic. The smell that begins to emit from you kitchen is intoxicating. And it's WAY cheap. The pictures don't really do this justice. I wish there was some way to record smell, because this was absolute gold.

This inspiration for this recipe comes from one of my many Nigella Lawson cookbooks. If you know me well, you know that I have an unhealthy obsession with her. She's the mother I never had, the English goddess that would be the woman of my dreams if I were oriented in that direction. And she's beautiful to boot! I would have named this blog after her, but there are so many dropkicks who have done it already and I don't intend to join them. At any rate, we're talking about bread, so here goes:

Garlic and Rosemary Hearthbreads

3 1/2 AP or bread flour
1 package yeast
1 TB salt
1 1/2 C warm water (you may need more or less)
olive oil (keep it handy)

2 heads of garlic
3-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
salt and olive oil to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast and salt. Add warm water and stir to create a gooey mess or what will eventually become dough. You may need more or less water. Turn out your dough-mess onto a large cutting board covered in flour and knead. You may need to add flour. A lot of flour. This dough was pretty sticky when I made it. Knead for 5-10 minutes. You'll know it's done when it's come together nicely, isn't too sticky or dry and forms into a nice mound when you ask it to. Grease a clean bowl (you can clean out the one you just used, says my Buba in my head) with olive oil. Place your dough in it, flipping it over so that all sides get to be covered in a bit of oil from the sides of the bowl. Cover in plastic or a towel and let rise for at least an hour.

While the bread is rising, chop the tops off the head of garlic. Drizzle a little olive oil on their tops and wrap each one loosely in some tin foil. Throw them in that pre-heated oven of yours for 45 minutes, raising the oven temp to 400 after you throw them in.

When they're done, pull them out and let them cool. (Side note: It was at this point that I poured a glass of wine. It was 4PM and time to get things started.) Anyway, when they're cool enough to handle, squeeze out the sweet garlicyness into a food processor (a mini prep is perfect for this job!) Remove the rosemary from its sprigs and add to the garlic along with 5ish tablespoons of olive oil. Pulse for 30 seconds or so, until the garlic, rosemary and oil are combined well. Set aside.

In the meantime, punch down the risen dough. Let it sit for 10 more minutes and the take half of it and roll out onto a floured surface. Try for a rectangular shape, but remember it IS dough, and will do what it will. Take a baking sheet, line with parchment, and place your rectangle on it. Do the same for the second half of the dough. Cover this with a towel and let rise for half an hour.

Now comes the fun part. Use your fingers to poke perforations in the rectangular dough shapes. Spread your garlic-rosemary paste on top as evenly as you can. Throw 'em in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes, and you're gold!

These are phenomenal straight out of the oven, but will last a day or two if handled with care. Just toast them up and they should reconstitute themselves nicely.