Onion, Garlic & Rosemary Artisan Loaf

I made yet another loaf of bread made this weekend. If you're wondering what the heck is wrong with this poor herbivore - don't worry! I'm not going crazy. I'm hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner this year and only want to impress everyone with my awesome bread making skills. Hence the weekly attempts to make something amazing :) !!! This week's recipe is a slight variation of a the Rosemary Garlic Artisan Loaf I tried a few weeks ago and this version was loved much more by the hubby! 

Onion, Garlic & Rosemary Artisan Loaf

Time Required: 20 min prep time, ~3.5 hours rise time, 45 min oven time.

Ingredients:

1. 4 cups King Arthur's Bread flour (plus more for dusting)
2. 1.5 cups (+ a couple extra tbsp) Water
3. 1 Medium Red Onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
4. 2 tbsp Minced Rosemary (fresh)
5. 2 tbsp Minced Garlic 
6. 2 tsp Coarse Salt (Sea or Kosher)
7. 2 tsp Black Pepper (freshly cracked)
8. 2 tsp Dried Chives 
9. 1 tsp Active Dry Yeast

Directions:

Measure out the flour, yeast, salt, diced onions, chives minced garlic and rosemary in a bowl. I measure directly into my Cuisinart Stand Mixer. 

Add water and start mixing (I used the lowest speed setting #2) using the dough hook. As the water is incorporated, the dough should come together as a large ball. If there are crumbs still sticking to the sides after a couple of minutes, add more water in 1 tablespoon portions until everything is incorporated. Depending upon how fresh or old your flour is it may sometimes need just a tad extra water. Be patient. It is very easy to overdo the water and you will then need to add more flour. You will most likely not need to much. I needed just 3 additional tablespoons of water today. Mark the clock time and knead for 15 minutes.

Once you successfully achieve a windowpane with the dough, you can stop kneading (a piece of dough and be stretched out and it will become translucent, allowing light through like a window pane). This is how my dough looked after 15 minutes of kneading. Using a rubber spatula, transfer the dough to a well floured surface. I find a silicone baking mat works best for me. Lightly dust your fingers and the surface and shape the dough into a ball. I put the ball back into the Cuisinart bowl and set it aside to rise on the kitchen counter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for approximately 3 hours. If your house is cold as it can be in the fall, try the oven method I talked about in an earlier recipe). 

I allowed an approximately 3 hour rise time today. The dough expanded to about 3x its original size in this time. Start preheating the oven to 450° F. In my past attempts, I've actually preheated my cast iron dutch oven at the same time as the oven. However, several of the recipes I've come across do you preheat the dutch oven so I decided to try it without this time. I was however, worried about the dough sticking to the bottom of a cold dutch oven so I decided to cut out a round of parchment paper and use that to place my dough into the bowl. 

Remove dough from the bowl it is rising in and using lightly dusted fingers, shape it into a bowl. At this time be careful to not disturb the gluten fibers by kneading it too much. I placed the dough on my round piece of parchment paper and scored it once, straight across the top. Let the dough sit in the cold bowl for another 15 minutes or so. Once oven is ready, and the loaf has rested for 15 minutes, cover with lid and bake for 30 minutes at 450° F.

This is how my loaf looked after 30 min. Remove lid and set aside. Bake uncovered for another 15 minutes, until the loaf is golden brown.

Remove pot from oven. With the parchment paper, the loaf had no chance to stick to the pot at all. gently turn it over onto a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely before slicing into this awesome bread. Here are some pictures of the crumb

As you can see, there was a lot of rise and a lot of air. The rise held really well. The crust was a crunchy golden brown, but it was not so hard that I was scared to slice into it. 

On this slice of bread you can see the sprinkling of black pepper and the pieces of onion as well. Overall, this was an awesome loaf. According to Tony, this has been my best loaf so far (yes!). He wants this one on our Thanksgiving table. We'll see ... :)

Nutrition Facts (One Loaf): Calories 1853 (Fat Calories 13)
Total Fat 1.4 g; Carbohydrates 371 g; Fiber 22.3 g; Sugars 2.5 g; Protein 67.8 g


If you liked this recipe, be sure to check out my Recipe Index for more Whole-Food, Plant-Based, No-Added-Oil recipes. You can also like Rugrat Chow! on Facebook. Thanks!