Roasted Garlic Rosemary Parmigiano-Reggiano Bread...Talk about delicious!! Enjoy..Love, #CCQ
My "Roasted Garlic Rosemary Parmigiano-Reggiano" bread is absolutely delicious. Chewy and hearty with lovely swirls of savory roasted garlic throughout...You can nibble on it right out of the oven freshly baked and piping hot.... or you can make a delicious sandwich with sweet Serrano ham and creamy Swiss cheese... or you can simply dip this lovely bread in olive oil mixed with fresh Cracked Pepper... However you choose to enjoy this delicious bread either way you'll be in #CCQ heaven. Making homemade bread has been a passion of mine for quite some time... When I make homemade bread I do it with lots of love and patience. It is something that my daughter truly enjoys and request quite often. You'd think making bread is difficult, but it's actually not....with just a few simple ingredients you can create a delicious bread that will have your family wanting more and more....and the best part is you don't need a bread maker...you can bake this bread right in your Chodye! Awesome (Chodye is similar to a Dutch Oven pot) pictured below with the bread.
Let's start...
There are actually 3 important parts to making this bread.
The 1st part is the MOST IMPORTANT part... "Mixing the yeast water" ... you must make sure that the yeast is active (I will explain below how you know whether your yeast is active or not)...
The 2nd part is roasting your garlic to make the savory Garlic Rosemary Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese paste to spread in between the dough so that you have beautiful swirls of savory roasted garlic throughout your entire bread...
and The 3rd part is mixing the dough and allowing it to rise...
Prep time 2 1/2 hours
( relax, relax... 2 of those hours is used to simply allow the dough to rise... So there is no actual work in those two hours.... you're simply setting the dough aside, giving it room to breathe and rise... Which means essentially you're only doing 1/2 an hour of physical work)
Cook time: 30-40 minutes
Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Ingredients...
1 1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 packet of Fleischmann's active dry yeast
3 sprigs of Rosemary ( be mindful when the recipe calls for roughly chopped Rosemary, you must remove the rosemary leaves from the stem and discard the stem)
1 entire head of garlic
5 Tbsp olive oil
2 1/4 tsp salt
12 inches Foil paper ( or enough to wrap the entire head of garlic)
3 cups of bread flour
1/4 tsp granulated garlic powder
1 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese
LET'S GET STARTED.....
Using your measuring cup pour 1/2 cup of warm water into a bowl...it is important to make sure that your water is warm. It is equally as important to make sure that your water is not scolding hot or ice cold.. It must be warm.. just think warm water safe enough give a newborn baby a bath... the reason why your water must be warm and not ice cold/scolding hot is because if the water is cold it will not activate the yeast... But if your water is too hot it will kill the yeast therefore causing it not to activate also causing your bread not to rise.
To your warm water add the 1/2 tbsp sugar and 1 packet of yeast, stir until sugar is dissolved...cover bowl with plastic wrap then cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 10 minutes allowing yeast to activate. After 10 minutes you will notice a foam forming at the top of your yeast water and the delicious smell of the active yeast starting to come alive ( to describe the smell of active yeast, it smells similar to sourdough bread. Do not be alarmed by the smell... That is exactly what it's supposed to smell like "Sourdough bread"). The foam is an indication that the yeast is active and your bread dough will rise (If the foam does not develop it could mean a few things.. for example the yeast is not active and unfortunately you got a packet that was a dud... It happens, don't worry.... it could also be an indication that your water was either too hot or too cold.... lastly it can also be that the yeast packet was improperly handled at the store and there was temperature abuse therefore causing the yeast to not activate... but don't worry, if it does not foam simply start over, the yeast packets are usually sold in quantities of 3)
While yeast is forming let's start prepping our garlic to roast and develop its savory and delicious flavor. Take an entire head of garlic and cut off 1/4 inch from the top. Then take your garlic and place it in the center of your foil paper ...drizzle with 1 Tbsp of olive oil... Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of salt... Then sprinkle 1 tbsp roughly chop Rosemary... Then put the top of the other half of the garlic that you just cut off on top.... wrap tightly in foil paper, place on a baking sheet and put in the center of the oven for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
While Garlic is roasting and yeast is activating let's get started on mixing your dry ingredients for the bread...to a large bowl add 3 cups bread flour, 1/4 tsp granulated garlic, 2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, and 1 tbsp roughly chopped Rosemary (remember to remove the Rosemary leaves from the stem and roughly chop the leaves... Discard the stem)
Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to mix the dry ingredients together.
By now you're warm yeast water should have formed a foam at the top ....to your bowl of yeast water add an additional 1 cup of warm water... then add your warm yeast water to your dry ingredients.... there is no need to knead your dough... Simply make sure that your dry ingredients and yeast water have been well Incorporated together.... Take 2 tablespoons of olive oil and pour into a large clean dry Bowl using your fingers spread the olive oil around the entire inside of the bowl... Then take your bread dough and gently form into a ball and place inside of the greased bowl... Take another one tablespoon of olive oil and pour on top of the dough assuring that the entire surface of the dough is covered with a thin layer of olive oil... Then cover your bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a dry warm corner and cover with towel... If you'd like you can put this bowl on top of the stove while the garlic is roasting inside of the stove... The warmth from the stove will help the bread to rise beautifully ... allow bread to rise for 1 hour.
After 45 min have passed remove garlic from oven. Turn oven off. Unwrap the garlic from the foil and let cool for 10 minutes... After garlic has cooled, squeeze garlic pulp into a small bowl, add your 1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tbsp of Rosemary leaves... There's no need to chop the leaves simply add them into the cheese and garlic mixture... Mixed together well and set aside...
Your almost ready to bake your bread...
After your dough has had one hour to rise
Pour your dough out onto a floured surface and flatten with fingers into about 12 inches in diameter, using a spoon/ spatula spread the Roasted Garlic Parmigiano-Reggiano mixture over the surface then fold dough into the shape of a ball (Reserve 1 tablespoon to mixture so that you can add to the top of the bread before baking)
Place the dough into a greased Chodye ( large aluminum iron pot)
Using a sharp knife add two to three slits to the top of your dough... in between the slits add your one tablespoon reserved garlic mixture, sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, sprinkle with a few rosemary leaves. Then lightly drizzle remaining olive oil on top of dough. Cover pot with a kitchen towel and set aside for 40 minutes for second Rise.
After second Rise, place you lid on the pot and bake the bread for 25 minutes with lid in a 350 degree oven. After 25 minutes remove the lid and continue baking for an additional 15 minutes or until the bread is golden brown.
Allow to cool, if you can resist... but honestly I typically slice it right away and eat it with a little bit of butter smeared on my slice... Enjoy this delicious Roasted Garlic Rosemary bread with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese with your scrambled eggs in the morning or use it to make a delicious sweet Serrano ham,swiss cheese and provolone cheese or you can dip your bread in a mixture of fresh olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Cracked Pepper Yummm!!!
Enjoy, Love #CCQ