Ingredients

2 cups bread flour (I used the King Arthur Flour)

1 1/4 cups warm water

1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

2 teaspoons sugar

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (You’re going to be adding olive oil to the recipe a few times so it’s easiest to divide it up into tablespoons)

1 tablespoons sea salt + 1/2 teaspoon to sprinkle on dough right before it goes in oven

2 tablespoons chopped Rosemary leaves

Step 1: Combine the warm water (make sure it’s warm, not cold, not hot), yeast, and sugar into a small bowl and let it sit for about 12-15 minutes until you’ve got a bubbly, frothy top.

Step 2: In another big bowl combine flour and half of the chopped rosemary. Then make a little well in the center of your flour and pour 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and 1 tablespoon of sea salt. It will look like a little pool.

Step 3: Pour the water-yeast-sugar mix into the pool and begin stirring. It’s going to get too sticky for a spoon so get your hands dirty and begin kneading the dough in the bowl. Once it’s all combined, transfer the dough onto a clean, floured surface and begin kneading the flour until you’ve created a nice ball.

Step 4: Transfer the ball into a bowl brushed with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Cover with saran wrap and a towel or blanket and let it sit for one hour. You’ll notice that your dough has nearly doubled in size when time is up.

Note: I personally wrap it all up and put the bowl in my laundry room while my dryer is running. It’s nice and warm in there!

Step 5: Once the hour is over, remove your dough and again knead once again onto a lightly floured surface. You’re going to want to make sure that the dough has an elastic-bounce-back type of feeling to it.

Step 6: Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil onto a large baking tray and place the ball of dough into the tray. Because my hands are greasy, I also spread some olive oil on the top of the dough itself. Cover the dough with saran wrap and a towel  and let it sit for another 30 minutes.

Step 7: Preheat your oven to 375-400°F (I tend to stick to 375°F because my oven gets really HOT and it burns!)

Step 8: When the 30 minutes are up, begin to flatten out your dough with your fingers using a poking type of motion. You will create cute little “dimples” in the dough. You don’t want flat, boring dough, you want to see texture. Now with the last tablespoon of olive oil, brush the top of your dough and sprinkle the remaining rosemary and 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt onto your bread.

Step 9: Bake for 30 minutes or until your bread has a beautiful golden color.

Sahtain!