Garlic Rosemary Focaccia

I enjoy baking breads, and even more than baking it, I love to eat a good bread. A couple of years ago, Kip gave me an Artisan Bread class for my Christmas gift. Even though I have been baking bread for a long time, I learned a lot in that class. One of the breads we made was a Garlic Rosemary Focaccia bread. I made this for dinner the other night along with a pot of Egyptian Lentil soup.

Getting ready to mix my dough! I used regular olive oil for the dough, but reserved the rosemary infused oil for the last step.

I love the smells from making bread and it starts at the very beginning when I proof my yeast.

After the dough was mixed, I set it aside to rise.

After the first rise, I kneaded the dough, adding in about a tablespoon of rosemary.

Second rise:

This is when I used the rosemary infused olive oil, just before baking. I also sprinkled a little more rosemary and some minced garlic.

And fresh from the oven:

I like this recipe for the Garlic Rosemary Focaccia. As great as any homemade bread smells when it is baking, the rosemary in this bread makes the house smell fantastic!

Pita Bread

I don't think I can say it often enough, but I love bread. I mean I really LOVE bread, all kinds too, especially if they are fresh out of the oven. I have been on this journey of making as much as I can from scratch and I have attempted many different types to satisfy my love of a good bread. Some have turned out better than others and I still need more practice to make things like hot dog and hamburger buns. For some reason, pita bread gave me some trouble the first time I tried to make it so I kept buying it from the store. Then a Greek restaurant opened up not too far from the house, and I loved eating their fresh pita bread. That spurred me to try again to make my own and I am so happy I did.

The amazing smell of bread baking always starts with the yeast proofing in a bowl.

I love getting to this stage too, my dough is getting ready to rise, I can still smell the yeast with the combination of flour and I know goodness will be happening soon!

After rising pita bread is formed into a long "snake"

then, cut into equal size pieces. I usually cut mine into 12 pieces, If you want larger pitas to make a wrap, you can cut the dough into 8 pieces. Any less and then the pitas almost get too big to work with. 

Each section is rolled into a ball and then flattened into a disk.

I bake on stoneware most all of the time and always when I am making pita bread. When baked, these puff up and turn golden and are so delicious and tender. 

And once again, I forgot to take a picture of my finished pitas! But here is a picture of a lunch a packed with my pita bread.

Here is my favorite bread book. Pretty much everything is in here and it has 500 bread recipes...I haven't made them all yet!

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!