Make this bread.

So not only does Brave Sir Robin have the best pizza crust recipe EVAR, he also (perhaps unwittingly) has a damn fine herb bread recipe.

Alex had a hankering to make herb bread and I suggested using the pizza crust recipe because it took me so long to find a good one (and this is a really, really good one. Oh, okay, I'll shut up about that now) that we might as well start with something we already like.

He bought some fresh rosemary and I talked him through the recipe, adding the rosemary, some Italian seasoning and some garlic powder. I suggested bread sticks, and Alex was thinking more of a loaf. He ended up making four individual loaf-ettes, which baked pretty quickly and were a big hit with the girls. He even carved everyone's initials in the top of each one before baking - I will admit I was skeptical about that part, but it worked out great.

It was crusty and crunchy on the outside, soft and flavorful on the inside. Definitely make this bread.

(Julia is taking a cooking workshop in school, so she got her new apron and hair net and everything out and apprenticed herself to Alex. Actually, she helped with the soup more than the bread.)






Here's what we did:

(This is very slightly modified from Brave Sir Robin's recipe; I cut it in half and added an extra 1/2 cup of flour to accommodate our mile-high elevation. Well, and added the herb stuff.)

Drop a
Tiny pinch of sugar into
1/2 Cup warm water and sprinkle
2 1/4 Teaspoons yeast on top. Let it sit while you measure

3 1/2 Cups flour into a bowl and add
1/2 Teaspoon of salt. Stir a bit and then pour another
1/2 Cup warm water into the flour, followed by
3 Tablespoons olive oil and a
scant Tablespoon of honey.

The yeast should be foaming in its warm water by now, so dump that in too. Mix with a fork till it starts to hang together, then add

2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped, and some generous dashes of Garlic powder and
Italian seasoning (ours is pre-mixed - I guess it's got oregano, basil and parsley, but whatever's on hand to make it herb-y will be fine).

Knead by hand for 10 minutes, then lightly oil the ball of dough, cover & let rest in a warm place 15 minutes. Knead again for a minute or two, then let rise for 45 minutes. Form into your desired shape(s) and bake for 10 minutes or so at 450 degrees F (230 C). Our baby loaves took about 13 minutes. Bread sticks would go faster, of course.