The Best Rosemary Bread You'll Ever Eat

I'm going to sound like a brat for a minute, but I think you'll understand why after reading this recipe (and forgive me after you taste the end result): I miss Spanish bread. Every few years, I go to Spain to visit my mom's side of the family; pretty much all of my maternal relatives live there, save my aunt and her sons here in NOLA and a few distant cousins in Florida and Argentina.

It's not just that Spanish bakeries produce fresher bread, they produce higher-quality baked goods. My grandfather and family are from a region of Spain called Galicia. They are known primarily for textiles and agriculture, such as wheat and potatoes. One of my favorite things to do during my vacation is to walk to the bakery and get the daily bread early in the morning, before the tiny village, a popular summer spot, has started to truly bustle. The roskillas, panecillos, panes de chocolate... mmmm... I get sad just thinking about how much I didn't get to eat this summer.

That being said, I just wanted a good crusty, rustic style of bread. I looked up the basic ingredients for that style of bread. Simple. Then it dawned on me that I could add things to it.

I figured I would have to mess with the measurements to get exactly what I wanted, but I was wrong. I guessed correctly, luckily, on the first try, and have just followed those measurements ever since. I'm not usually good at guessing things when it concerns baking, but I think the bread goddesses were looking out for me.

Ever since Trader Joe's discontinued their rosemary bread, my stomach has missed it - it was a void that I couldn't fill... up until now. And I think I might have made it better than they did, not to toot my own horn.

And now, onto the recipe!

Ingredients:

400g good flour (I used King Arthur All Purpose Unbleached Flour)

300g water room temp

8 g sea salt

4 g instant yeast

2-3 tbsp dried, chopped rosemary (more if desired)

Instructions:

1. Add the ingredients together in a bowl and stir it until it is roughly combined - not smooth.

2. Cover it and let it rise for about 4 hours, until it has more-or-less doubled in size.

3. Kneed it into a smooth dough and cover it again; let it rest for another 2 hours.

4. At this point, preheat your oven to 450F. In a cast iron pot, put olive oil on the bottom and rub it around. Place your dough in the center, and cover it with the lid to the pot.

5. Once the oven reaches, 450F, place the covered pot in the oven and let it bake for 30 mins.

6. After 30 minutes, turn off the oven and take the top off of the pot, but, let the pot sit in the oven (that's still off) for about 10 minutes.

7. Then, turn the oven back on to 450F again, and this time let it bake with the lid OFF for another 10 minutes.

8. Take out your pot and remove the bread; place bread onto a wooden cutting board or cooling wrack and let rest for about 10 minutes before you try to cut into it.

9. Enjoy! I like to serve it with homemade pesto, but having it with just a little bit of salted butter is actually my favorite way. It's just so simple and so delicious.

Tip: If you want even CRUSTIER bread, try separating the dough into two equal parts after the 4-5 hour rising period, before you let it rest for those remaining two hours. Make sure to work both halves into smooth dough balls. Bake them in separate cast iron pots at the same time (if your oven is big enough), or bake one for lunch and let the other rest for a few more hours until dinner!