The Grimbound Bakery Presents…
Welcome to the second edition of the Grimbound Bakery! Today we are featuring Grandmother’s legendary rosemary bread. Do not be intimidated; this bread is really easy, even for someone who has never made bread (like me!) It gets cooked in the crockpot.
Ingredients
- 1 packet dry active yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 1/4 c. warm water
- 3 1/2 c. flour
- 1/4 c. fresh rosemary
- 3 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp. salt
Instructions
Combine the sugar, water, and yeast in a bowl. This is what it looked like when I mixed the three together.
This is what it looked like after sitting for ten minutes. I suppose it was “bubbling”.
Add the flour, olive oil, 1/2 tsp. salt, and half the rosemary. I obtained my rosemary from the neighbor’s large bush in their front yard. At the end I ended up using my hands to form it into a ball.
Unfortunately, my attempt to get a photo of the dough somewhat rolled into a ball and in the bowl before I put the kitchen towel on to cover and let it sit for an hour did not capture correctly, so this is the only photo I have of this step of the process.
After an hour, I removed the towel to see this!
Form the dough into a ball, and return to the large bowl. Cover with the kitchen towel for another 20 minutes.
Dough will puff up a bit after sitting for 20 more minutes.
Line the crockpot with parchment paper. Larger crockpots work better, but a small one can be used. My loaf ended up taller and rounder than the loaf I made in a larger crockpot because it had no room to spread out. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp. salt atop the dough and the remaining rosemary.
Place paper towels under the lid of the crockpot to absorb any moisture released from the bread during baking. Set the crockpot to “high” and leave for 2 hours.
Remove the lid and carefully use the parchment paper to pull the bread out of the crockpot.
This is what it looked like coming straight out of the crockpot. Then I heated the oven to 400 degrees and put the bread on the top rack for about 6 minutes just to firm up the middle. The bottom was already nice and golden brown.
This is the final result (see photo at the top of the page also) after coming out of the oven.
Serve drizzled with olive oil and other herbs and spices if desired!
