Rosemary and Olive Oil Farmhouse Bread

How are your resolutions going? How are we already 10 days into 2012?

Did you make any this year? Do you have un-fun goals or good ones?

I’ve never been big on New Year’s Resolutions. If I want to do something bad enough, I would hope I could make that goal and work on it any time during the year.

But I definitely have some things I want to do this year.

I want my 2012 to be full of:

page-turners

family and friends

hugs + kisses

long weekends

music

puppy cuddles

happy hours with friends

callouses from re-learning guitar, and headaches from re-learning piano

more delicious food than I had in 2011

homemade bread, any time I have the time to make it

When we were painting the dining room a few weekends ago, I took my favorite farmhouse bread recipe and made a couple new spins on the recipe.

The only thing we still have growing in the yard right now is fresh rosemary, and I’m still completely in love with it.

Rosemary, a big pinch of salt, and a quick drizzle of olive oil takes an awesome loaf of homemade bread to an even more awesome level.

If you haven’t made any resolutions yet, do me a favor? Let’s make 2012 the Year of Homemade Bread – are you in?

Rosemary and Olive Oil Farmhouse Bread

Makes: 2 loaves, 12-16 slices each

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 1/3 cup honey or agave nectar
  • 1/4 cup canola or safflower oil
  • 1 Tbsp salt
  • 4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (2 packages)
  • 2 1/4 cups warm water
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
  • 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary

Directions:

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer or other large bowl, mix the bread flour, honey/agave, oil, salt, and yeast.
  2. Add warm water to flour mixture and mix together until the water is incorporated.
  3. Stir in the all purpose flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough is mixed together and is easy to handle.
  4. Knead dough (with dough hook or by hand) until it is smooth and springs back when you touch it (about 5 minutes).
  5. Place the dough in a large bowl that has been coated with1 Tbsp of the olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and sit in a warm place to rise for 40-60 minutes or until dough has doubled.
  6. Punch dough down, knead in the last tablespoon of olive oil and the fresh rosemary and divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rectangle (the width of your loaf pans), roll up and place into your greased loaf pans.
  7. Cover the loaf pans with plastic wrap or a towel and let the dough rise, again, in a warm place 40-60 minutes, or until doubled.
  8. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place rack in the middle of the oven.
  9. Bake bread for 40-45 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and they sound hollow when tapped.
  10. Remove from the oven and let them cool 5 minutes before removing from the pans.

45 comments

  1. I want this bread, the whole loaf! I like your list of wants. I didn’t make resolutions, just some “intentions” to live well!

  2. I absolutely love rosemary and there is nothing better than rosemary bread – I can’t wait to try this!

  3. Im so in! I used to make homemade bread a lot and i have totally been slacking. Rosemary really rocks on potatoes, popcorn, in soup and in bread! Gorgeous loaf

  4. Mmm, this looks great! There is a restaurant that we go to that serves a fresh rosemary bread that is heavenly. It comes with a side of olive oil for dipping. This bread reminds me of that. :)

  5. I’ll make 2012 the year of the homemade bread as long as you’re the one baking it for me :-)

  6. No resolutions for me! I always break them.
    Love the bread..too dangerous for me to have laying around the house! I would eat the whole thing!

  7. This sounds wonderful. I actually just got my mom’s breadmaker to play around with for a while, and my first attempt at homemade bread sticks was an epic failure. Once I stop pouting about it, I suppose I’ll give it another try… But rosemary in bread is always a good time.

  8. So funny, I just tweeted the other day while eating a slice of bread and butter that there really isn’t much better than that, simple as it is! This bread looks fantasticccc Brandi, i sure do love me some rosemary too :) Hope you are doing well in the new year!

  9. This looks so delicious! I really want to start baking more bread but I’m sort of a chicken. I need to get a stand mixer. That’s my excuse :)

  10. I love this list. I’m sure you can have all of these things.

    I’m also totally saving this bread recipe. I’ve never made a loaf from scratch (can you believe that?).

  11. What an awesome list of wants for 2012 – I hope you’re able to achieve all of them :)

  12. I’ve been experimenting with bread this year too! Ciabatta, though, which I think would be fabulous with rosemary and olive oil. I think I may have to try your recipe. Thomas LOVES fresh baked bread.

    Thanks!

  13. The bread looks like fluffy deliciousness! I’d love to make my own loaf… When I was younger, one of my [still] best friends and I would “bake” bread the morning after we had a sleepover- I use “bake” figuratively because we would combine some flour and whatever other ingredients we had in the pantry [never had yeast] and would try baking bread haha! We never had a success…

  14. Yes… 2012: The year of homemade bread! LOVE. I actually just got the Bread Baker’s Apprentice for Christmas, and I have bookmarked practically every page!!! Girl, you need to come visit for a bread-baking girls weekend!!!! How fun would THAT be! :)

  15. Oh girl. Let’s be best friends. I made the farmhouse bread on new year’s day…warm bread is a wonderful hangover cure! I’ve been obsessing over rosemary everything for the past couple of months and now this? I can’t wait to have the time to make this!!

    Do you think the bread would bake well in rounds…like not in a pan?

    • I think it would do great in rounds! you may want to add a tiny bit more flour if your dough is really stick, just to make sure the rounds don’t flatten out too much. Let me know if you try it!

  16. rosemary is one of my favorites–i MUST grow it this year! I’ve made a rosemary bread before that was ryan’s all-time favorite…I need to get back into homemade bread making! thanks for the reminder/inspiration :)

  17. I wanted to make 2012 the year of the tartlet, but we can make it the year of homemade bread too! I definitely want to bake more bread this year.

    • I can get on board with tarts/tartlets, too :) I have a tart pan that I’ve never used! This is the year.

  18. i just started making my own breads and i love it so far! this one looks amazing – i love herbed breads.

    i really need to find a good one using at least some whole wheat flour – all white flour is hard for me to get on board with though and i feel guilty skipping my whole grains!

    • I make this recipe with whole wheat flour all the time! Just switch out the all purpose for whole wheat, but leave most (or at least 2 cups) of the bread flour in the recipe. It’s delicious!

      • hooray! that’s great news to hear. :) the current recipe i use calls for only bread flour & i was told not to sub in whole wheat flour or it wouldn’t turn out. i will definitely try your recipe with the ww flour.

        • yup, bread flour makes a big difference, but you can definitely sub in other flours, too. I usually stick with the 3 cups of bread flour and just try different types for the other 3 cups of flour. Every batch has turned out great!

  19. Yum! Home baked bread is just unbeatable! This with the rosemary is just perfect.

  20. Yes! 2012 is definitely going to be the year of homemade bread. I just recently dusted off my old bread machine too, so it’s perfect! :-D

  21. This looks delicious – rosemary is such a perfect herb for winter. Homemade bread is the best! I’m definitely going to try to make more of it this year.

  22. I really would like some of this shipped to me please

  23. Nothing better than pulling out a golden loaf of homemade bread from the oven! I’m with you on the resolutions for 2012, especially more family and friends, hugs + kisses and long weekends.

  24. you should try the rosemary olive oil cake I posted about a little while back :) i’m totally smitten with the combination, and this bread certainly sounds fantastic!

    http://bit.ly/wUezuP

  25. I’m not big on resolutions either, but I turned 28 a few days ago and decided to make a list of 28 things I want to do this year so it’s more of a goal to do list than resolutions. One of them happens to be learn how to make a really good loaf of homemade bread :)

  26. I thought I wanted brownies (after browsing your site this morning). But now all I can think about is bread. Yum. I’m bookmarking this for weekend baking.

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