Rosemary Bread

Rosemary Bread is one of my favorite herbed breads to make at home. Bread is one of my favorite foods and nothing makes my house smell as good as bread baking in the oven. With the addition of the rosemary and the other herbs, this one is exceptionally fragrant. This is my basic bread recipe that I use for any herbed bread. Rosemary is what I make the most often, but I have substituted the rosemary for other herbs such as dill or a combo of oregano, parsley and basil. Any combo of herbs that you would pair together will work. 

Here I have added my dry ingredients (minus 1 cup of flour) , including the yeast.

After adding the water and softened butter, mix for just a minute or two.

Add remaining cup of flour. At this time I switched to the dough hook on my mixer.

Bread is now ready to rise. I really like using my Kitchen Aid mixer for this, because the bowl that goes with it happens to be one of my largest mixing bowls. This way, I don't have to get another bowl dirty to allow the dough room to rise.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then cover with a dish towel and allow to rise for about an hour in a warm, not hot, place.

At the end of the hour, punch down the dough and knead for a few minutes.

Grease a loaf pan. Press dough into the pan, make sure to get it in the corners. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 45 minutes. 

After this rise, the bread will fill your loaf pan.

In about 40 - 45 minutes of baking you will end up with a golden brown beauty like this:

Herbed Bread Recipe

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 packet active dry yeast

1 1/4 cup warm water

2 tablespoons of melted butter

2 teaspoons parsley

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Combine 2 cups of the flour and the rest of the dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Stir, then add the water and the softened butter. Mix on low for 1 minute, scraping the sides of the bowl. Turn mixer to medium and beat for 1 more minute. Stir in last cup of flour. (Switch to dough hook if you have one) and mix until smooth and the batter pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about an hour. 

Grease a loaf pan. Punch down dough and knead for about 5 minutes. Place dough in the greased loaf pan and pat down. Cover pan with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 - 45 minutes until dough has about doubled. 

Preheat oven to 375* and bake in oven until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on top, about 40 - 45 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

It really is best to wait an hour before slicing, but I have only been able to do that once or twice, nothing beats bread straight out of the oven!