Rosemary Peasant Bread

Today two of Ed's nephews came over to learn to bake bread. I don't know what they thought of the morning, but I sure had fun!

Ed has been encouraging me to hold a bread baking class. But I am sort of embarrassed. Doesn't it sound self-promoting to offer to teach something? I suppose that is what I'm doing here on the blog but I can pretend no one is reading and I'm just writing all this for my daughter.

Anyway, I was thrilled when his nephews said they wanted to learn to bake bread over summer vacation! Any excuse to bake bread! And they even did the dishes!

When I asked what they wanted to learn to bake, they said Macaroni Grill's Peasant bread. A quick google search brought numerous recipe ideas. I combined a few recipes to make this version. Whether this is close to the actual bread at Macaroni Grill, I don't know, but it is tasty and very easy to make. The perfect bread for beginners. We also made pizza dough and miracle bread.

If you were at Melody's talk on Monday, this is the peasant bread you had!
Rosemary Peasant Bread

• 1 T. yeast
  
• 2 c. warm water
• 1 T. olive oil
  
• 1 T. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  
• 4 c. flour
  
• 1-2 tsp fresh Rosemary plus more for topping

Dissolve yeast in the warm water and sugar. Add flour, salt, garlic powder, oil, and rosemary and stir until blended. Rest for five minutes. Stir again and add more flour if needed. Dough will be sticky and barely manageable. Do not Knead!

Move dough into greased bowl. Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until double in size.

Remove dough from bowl. With oiled hands, form into loaves and place on greased pan. Spray top with oil and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise another hour.

Brush each round with beaten egg and lightly sprinkle with more rosemary and coarse salt. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.

Cool slightly, then tear off a piece, dip in olive oil or melted butter and enjoy!

Variation: We like it with some whole wheat flour substituted for the white.