Dutch Oven Boule Bread with Rosemary

 

[Sorry -- I was hoping to get a photo of it fresh out of the oven, but I went to bed too early and DH finished the bake and sliced it before I could see it whole.]

Trying a new bread recipe this week.  This one is by The Art of Manliness.  I've discovered I do all right with breads if I don't have to touch them / knead them.  Better off with the no knead artisan breads.

 

Here's what it looked like when The Art of Manliness posted his version. 

Pretty good looking, right?

The Basic Recipe [modified for our oven]:

This is an overnight rise, so start the bread the day or night before you’d like to bake it.  You can let it rise up to 24 hours. 1/2 tsp yeast give it a lot of life and energy!

Ingredients:

• 4-1/2 cups flour (bread or all-purpose) 
• 2 T. chopped Rosemary
  
• 1 T. salt
• 1/2 tsp. yeast
• 2 1/2 cups lukewarm water

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and yeast, so it’s all well-incorporated.
2. Add the chopped Rosemary (or other additions)
   
3. Add 2 1/4 cups water, stir until a sticky, pretty wet dough forms. If not all of the flour is incorporated, slowly add more water, a tablespoon or so at a time. This isn’t your standard dough; it’s very moist and would be impossible to form into any shape at this point.
4. Transfer to a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it rise on the counter at room temperature overnight, or up to 24 hours.
5. After the bread has risen, use a spoon to fold the dough over itself 4-6 times, deflating some of the air from it. Let rise another 2-3 hours.
6. When you’re ready to bake, place your Dutch oven, with the lid, into the conventional oven. Preheat it to 475 degrees.
7. When the conventional oven is preheated, pull the Dutch oven out (with oven mittens, please) and place it on the stove top. Using a spoon, pour your dough into the hot dutch oven. It’ll sizzle a little bit.
8. Place the lid back on, and put it back in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes with the lid on, then another 10 minutes with the lid off.  When it temps at 190 degrees = perfectly baked bread.
   
9. Pull the Dutch oven out of the conventional oven, and let the bread sit in there another 10 minutes or so, before carefully flipping it over to get the bread out. The high heat ensured that the bread wouldn’t stick, so it should plop right out.
   
10. Let cool for a couple hours before slicing in and enjoying!

For a whole wheat variation, use 420 grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour (or bread flour) and 240 grams (1.5 cups) whole wheat flour.

You can also add: grated cheese (1 cup, gruyere is excellent), dried fruit (1 cup, blueberries are my favorite), rosemary (1-2 tablespoons). These are all added between steps 1 and 2. Use your imagination and experiment!

 

 

I added a goodly amount of fresh rosemary.   Someday I might add garlic along with it. ;-)  The last of the rosemary is still growing in the pot outside my front door.  The frost has not been so cold as to kill it off yet.  I also discovered that you can bring Rosemary in (and a few other herbs) and grown them in a glass of water, as if you were rooting them.  They always dry out in a pot with dirt on the windowsill, so maybe this will work?