Recipes

[LoLa]

Easy and Delicious Homemade Bread

A friend of mine gave me this recipe around the holidays last year and I've been hooked ever since. I make it at least twice a week. My family loves it. You brush the bread with a mix of olive oil, garlic and herbs, which gives it a crispy, garlicky crust; while the inside is soft and chewy and it's almost impossible to resist.

Bread
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour + a few tsp more if needed (I like King-Arthur)
1 tsp salt
1 cup of water at 115F
1 tsp active yeast
1 tablespoon honey

Topping
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs

Honestly, you can even make this in your bread machine with great results.
Just use the dough setting. Then follow the recipe from the **

Whisk flour and salt in a mixer bowl. Heat water to 115F and add yeast and honey.

Pour the water mixture into the flour and knead with the dough hook for 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. It shouldn't be very sticky - if it is, knead in a bit more flour until the dough is still soft and only very slightly sticky.

**Rub or spray a large bowl with olive oil and put the dough inside, turning it to coat with oil. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft free place until doubles in size (about an hour).

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Turn the dough out onto a floured counter and shape into a loaf (I made mine round). With a sharp knife make a 1/4 inch deep incision in the form of an X

Combine olive oil, crushed garlic and herbs, and brush the bread with about 3/4 of the mixture.

Place the loaf in a cast iron, a dutch oven or on a baking sheet (I also put a layer of wax paper sprayed with olive oil under the bread) and bake for about 30 minutes. The crust should be a deep golden color and the bread should sound hollow when tapped from the side.

Immediately upon taking the bread out of the oven, brush again with the olive oil/garlic mixture and let cool to room temperature. Enjoy!