A simple Rosemary bread recipe is not rocket science.
Sitting on my couch one day I started reminiscing about great food I have eaten. My mind went to Macaroni Grill and, more specifically, their delicious Rosemary bread. Since we live in an area of the country far removed from the joy of eating at Macaroni Grill I wondered if I, an old man with no real kitchen talents, could make something close to their bread. So I did what we all do these days; I googled it.
Several rosemary bread recipes popped up and I read them all. They all have slight differences but essentially it looked kind of simple. At least it looked simple enough for an old guy who never baked anything more complicated than a frozen pot pie.
After receiving the necessary permits and licenses from my wife to mess up the kitchen, I began my first attempt. Yes, my first attempt failed. I realized that my oven was not hot enough. It seems to run about 25 degrees too cold. The second attempt was done with the oven set at 400, so it was really at 375.
The simple recipe
The rosemary bread recipe I chose is simple. I needed one cup of warm water, two and 1/2 cups of flour, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of butter, a packet of active yeast and a couple of tablespoons chopped rosemary. I had already bought some fresh rosemary and after smelling the fresh stuff I cannot conceive of using the dried junk in the spice rack.
Rosemary bread recipe for idiots
Make it
Put one cup of warm water in a medium or large bowl and add one tablespoon of sugar and one packet of yeast. Stir softly, to mix ingredients and let it sit for 5 minutes. It should form a foam on top of the water, that’s the yeast activating. If you happen to have a thermometer, the water should be between 105 and 110 degrees.
Assuming the yeast activated , add 2 cups of flour, one tablespoon of chopped rosemary, one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of softened butter. Now you mix the ingredients together for about 5-10 minutes. Its much simpler to throw the dough out on a clean counter. Cover the counter with a little flour and knead the dough. This means fold it over and over and press it down for several minutes.
Next you get a bowl and grease it with oil. Any kind will do even butter, as long as its edible. (no motor oil) Fashion the dough into a ball and put it into the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with your wife’s best dish towel and set the bowl in a warm place, I used the oven, I turned it on for just a minute to add some heat, and then put in the bowl.
Wait for it
After an hour the dough should be doubled in size. Take it out, knead it again for a minute, add some flour if its too sticky to work, and cut it in half. Then make two smaller balls of dough and put them on a flat, greased baking sheet. If you have parchment paper this will also work, or so I’m told.
Put the sheet back into the warm place for another hour. At this time you will want to sprinkle the dough balls with a little more rosemary and push it into the surface of the dough to make it stick. I also lightly sprinkled the dough with some coarse kosher salt.
bake your rosemary bread
Remove the sheet from the oven and heat the oven to 375 to 400 degrees. When oven is hot quickly put the sheet in and set the timer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes or so, it should be looking a little brown. Take it out and let it cool. I put a little melted butter on the top just to pretend I knew what I was doing and it seemed to help the flavor.
Conclusion
It took me two attempts to succesfully bake rosemary bread, but the second one turned out great. Now I have added accomplished “baker” to my list of life’s great accomplishments and I am already dreaming about learning to make pastry like maybe a warm cheese danish. mmmmmmmm!
If you’re looking for another more complicated recipe for rosemary bread check out this site.