Garlic and rosemary is a great combination and one I definitely need to use more often. You’d typically see these ingredients in a focaccia or in an olive oil dip for bread, but putting them in the bread themselves turns an ordinary loaf into an aromatic and savory masterpiece.

Schedule: I based this loaf off of my overnight bakers yeast schedule.

Since this bread got an overnight bulk fermentation, I only needed to use a scant 1/4 tsp (~0.8g) of bakers yeast. I had to make sure to mix it extremely well in the beginning to make sure the yeast got thoroughly incorporated.

30 minutes before mixing the bakers yeast, rosemary, garlic and salt into the dough, I performed an autolyse by mixing the water and flours together.

Ingredients:

Dough

• 950g bread flour
• 50g whole wheat flour
• 780g filtered water @ 90-95’F
• 22g sea salt
• 1/4 tsp yeast
• 28g garlic, roughly chopped
• 5g rosemary leaves, chopped

Method:

After mixing in the rosemary, garlic, salt and yeast, I performed 3 stretch and folds within the first 90 minutes. Even during the stretch and fold stages, the aroma of the garlic and rosemary was intense!

In the morning, the dough was nearly at the 4qt level in my fermentation bucket. There were some great bubbles forming at the top right before I shaped the loaves. Like during the stretch and folds, the smell of garlic and rosemary was already making me hungry.

I started preheating the oven right after I started proofing the loaves. After roughly an hour proof I baked the loaves in preheated dutch ovens at 450’F for 20 minutes covered, then removed the lid of the dutch oven and baked for an additional 31 minutes.

Result:

The loaves both rose very well in the oven and developed a beautiful caramelized crust. I topped half of each loaf with some sesame seeds to add a little visual texture. The natural venting on these loaves looks great.

The crumb is very soft without any really big holes. I’m always a fan of a tighter crumb so I can use my bread for sandwiches and cheesy bread. The rosemary and garlic slightly disappear in the crumb but the flavor is present throughout.

I can’t wait to try this bread with some tuna sandwiches tomorrow. The flavor of the garlic and rosemary is going to mesh really well with tuna in my opinion!

Thoughts for next time:

I think the amount of garlic and rosemary I used in this bread was a really good starting point. Next time I might add a little more garlic and try to reserve some additional rosemary leaves for sprinkling on the top for a little more visual appeal.

My Baking Notes

• Ambient temperature: 75’F
• Started autolyse @ 5:30pm
• Water temp: 90’F
• Dough was 87’F at autolyse
• Mixed @ 6:05pm
• Dough was 82’F after mixing
• 3 stretch and folds in first 90 minutes, w/ overnight bulk fermentation at room temp (68’F)
• Started proof & oven preheat @ 6:55am the next morning
• Into oven @ 7:55am