Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

This is the best bread.  The first time I made it I ate almost the entire loaf by myself. (don’t tell.)  

Have you ever seen a recipe and thought “I should make that” and then you don’t?  I saw this recipe over on the Prudent Homemaker about 3 years ago, and I thought 

“I should make that” and then I didn’t.  

 I finally made this recipe for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  I wish I had made it sooner. 

When I bake round loafs I often have a hard time determining when to take them out of the oven.  I recently learned that you can use a thermometer to measure the internal temperature.  For white loafs 195 degrees  for whole grain loafs 210 degrees. 

Recipe adapted from The Prudent Homemaker

Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

 printable recipe

 2 cups hot water, (105 to 110)

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons sugar

5-6 cups bread flour

2 tablespoons dried rosemary

In your mixing bowl, proof the yeast by adding the yeast into the warm water.  Let it sit for 5 minutes until nice and bubbly.

Add sugar, olive oil, salt and rosemary.  Mix well, add flour 1 cup at a time mixing between each cup.  You have added enough flour with the dough sticks together scraping the side of the bowl clean. 

If using an electric stand mixer knead 5-6 minutes.  If kneading by hand, knead 10 minutes on a floured surface, turning and folding well.

Pull all sides of the dough into the center, making a big ball. This stretches the gluten and makes a higher loaf. Put the dough in the bowl with the smooth side on top. Spray the top of the dough with cooking spray. Cover with a clean damp cloth over the top for 1 hour, or until double in size.

Take dough out of the bowl, and punch down.   Pull the edges into the middle all the way around to make a ball.  Cover let rest for 10 minutes.

Form dough into the loaf shape you desire. Put loaves on pan and allow to rise again covered for about 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400º so that it is ready to go at the end of the second rising.

When second rising is done, take a serrated knife and quickly and lightly slash the loaves.

This helps the loaves raise more in the oven.

Put loaf in the oven and cook until a nice browned and reaches an internal temperature of at least 195 degrees.

Small Round loaves: 30-40 minutes

1 Large Round Loaf:  1 hour

2 Sandwich Loafs 40-50 minutes

Take loaves out of the oven. After a couple minutes, turn loaves over on the cookie sheets so the bottoms can dry (or else they stay wet on bottom, even after an hour).

Sun Oven Directions: 

It is difficult to tell when bread is ready to be removed from the sun oven.  The easiest way is to use a thermometer to measure the internal temperature. 195 degrees and this bread is finished baking.

Prepare dough following the directions above until the second rising. 

Preheat your sun oven to 350 degrees. 

When bread is cooked in the sun oven it rises more than regularly so cut the time of the second rising down to about 15 minutes, or until the dough has filled the pan and rounded on the top.  Be sure to use a dark colored pan (or one that is metal and NOT shiny). 

After the second rising ready to put in the sun oven.

 Using a serrated knife slash the top of the loaf. 

 Quickly place your bread in the sun oven.  Close glass door and secure with the latch. 

For 1 large round loaf bake 1 hour or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 195 degrees.