Homemade bread is amazing. Without a doubt. And yesterday they had fresh herbs at the farmers market at the base of campus (right next to my office!) I grabbed basil, thyme, rosemary, and sage and I knew that I wanted to bake it into some delicious bread!
To make herb bread, just take your favorite bread recipe and add your choice of herbs! This bread recipe is the one I used to make when I was a kid. I used to watch the show Zoom and they made this bread on the show and I was hooked for weeks! I was so amazed when I was still able to find it online!
Adapted from PBS Kids:
Ingredients:
1 cup white (or wheat) flour (and a little extra for kneading)
2 cups bread flour
1 cup hot water
1 package active dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
A splash of milk
1 gallon size resealable plastic baggie
Note: These measurements are for one loaf of bread. For the tutorial below, I doubled my recipe because I was making two types of Herb Bread.
To make Herb Bread, we are just going to add the types of seasoning we want to our bread. I made Rosemary/Thyme bread and Basil/Garlic bread but honestly you could add anything really. Even rasins and cinnamon if you want a sweeter bread, or even honey and oats for a honey oat bread!
Here are my measurements (you can just eyeball it really)
For the Rosemary/Thyme bread:
3 sprigs of rosemary leaves, loosely chopped
2 sprigs of thyme leaves
For the Basil/Garlic Bread
1/2 cup chopped basil
1 clove (2 teaspoons) of minced garlic
First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Then mix 1 cup of bread flour, the packet of yeast, sugar and hot water in the sealable plastic bag.
Now get ready for the fun part. Let most of the air out of the bag, close it, and smoosh (yes, smoosh) the bag with your fingers to mix the ingredients.
 |
| My housemate Osang is a fantastic smoosher! |
After about 10 minutes, the mixture will start to bubble and the bag will expand.
Meanwhile in a separate bowl, add the milk, the other cup of bread flour, salt, oil, and your herbs.
And mix together.
Add this mixture to your bag.
Get ready for Round 2 of Smooshing!
Open the bag and add the 1 cup of white (or wheat) flour. Reseal the bag and enjoy your last round of smooshing. Smoosh it until smooth, about one to two minutes. Then, take the dough out of the bag and knead it for another minute on a floured surface.
If your dough does not seem to be coming together while kneeding it, slowly add flour to all sides of the dough until it looks like this and it no longer sticks to your hands:
Put the finished dough into a greased loaf pan (or on a cookie sheet) and cover it loosely with plastic wrap.
Let it rise for about 30 minutes.
Then bake for 35-40 minutes.
Slice it and serve with butter, cheese, or olive oil & balsamic vinegar!
Bon Appetite and Happy Bread Making!
No comments:
Post a Comment