Bready or Not: Hearthbread

This bread recipe, from How to Be a Domestic Goddess, is so good. It’s a solid white bread that is topped with a delicious garlic and parsley paste. I made it to serve at my cookie party, and happily at the leftovers every night that week with dinner. First you roast the garlic, which just gives your house the best “What’s cooking?” smell. Then, while it rises, you make the paste for the top that gives the bread so much flavor. It’s great for special occasions, the kind of bread that people love tearing into, but it is also a perfect flavorful side to go with a salad, soup, or a cut of meat.

Ingredients

(Makes Two Loaves)

3 and 1/2 cups white bread flour

1 package rapid-rise yeast

1 tbsp salt

1 and 1/3 – 1 and 2/3 cups warm water

5 tbsp olive oil, plus more for greasing and roasting garlic

3 or 4 small heads of garlic

Bunch of flat-leaf parsley

This Is How We Do It

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl.

Pour 1 and 1/3 cups warm water into a measuring cup and stir in the olive oil.

Mix the liquid with dry ingredients to make a soft but firm dough, adding more liquid as needed. Knead or mix until the dough is very smooth and elastic.

Form into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel and leave to rise someplace warm for an hour, until it is doubled in size.

Meanwhile, cut the tops of the heads of garlic and set them on foil. Drizzle the with olive oil, and wrap loosely with the foil.

Cook for 45 minutes; they should be soft but still hold their shape. Tear the parsley leaves from their stems (it’s OK if a few stems say on) and put in a food processor and chop. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into the food processor and blend again. Drizzle in olive oil while it’s running to make a paste. (Mine was pretty thick, but you can add more olive oil if you’d like it to be a bit more runny.)

When the dough has rise, punch it down, and leave it to rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough in half and roll each ball of dough into a puffy oval. Set on a sprayed baking sheet, cover, and let rise for 25 minutes. Then press into the dough with your fingers to make some dimples. Spread the garlic and parsley mixture over the bread.

Bake for 20 minutes, until the bread is golden and puffing up around the topping. Sprinkle with a little salt.

EAT!

What I love about this bread is it needs absolutely nothing — no butter, no dip, nada. The topping is just so flavorful. It’s a very soft bread — not hard or crunchy at all. And even though it looks pretty inspired, the ingredients are so basic, you probably could go make it right now! (Hint, hint.)

Tagged as: carbs, garlic, healthy recipes, homemade bread, olive oil