Dan Leader's Rosemary Filone / Panmarino

... and it was good, but could be better. Leader calls for 1/4 cup of rosemary and even though I love the stuff in bread and otherwise, that felt like a lot so I opted to halve it. Next time I might meet somwhere in the middle just to see how it turns out. I still think 1/4 cup might be too much, but perhaps that's personal taste.

The other thing I'd recommend is a bit more water than the 1 1/3 cup in Leader's recipe. I don't have a specific recommendation here (perhaps 1.5 cups?) but the final loaf was a bit denser than I'd hoped, and certainly denser than in his picture. I used KA AP, just so that you know. For this bread, I'll go for a wetter dough next time around.

Overall, though, I'd say its a good one and relatively easy to make, so best of luck!

I have some idea what went wrong, Birgit, but it's not on your end: Leader's formula for the Rosemary Filone, as is the case with many of his other formulas in Local Breads, is off.

I'd even venture to say it's not bloody likely that the formula on page 175 was the same formula used to create the filone in the picture adjacent to page 148! That would require a much, much wetter dough. I suspect, by the by, that the same may be true for the Quintessential French Sourdough in said book -- though I've come up with my own formula for that one which, while it doesn't match the photo, is quite good and also holds seeds aplenty rather well.

I've tried the Rosemary Filone a couple times myself and not been happy with it. I mean its much denser, not even close, to that picture. I'll try again "someday" and who knows perhaps I'm doing something wrong ... so it's worth asking: Anyone in TFL world have success with Leader's Rosemary Filone?

Birgit, you've probably seen this already but just in case, here's a like to a thread about some of the errors in Local Breads: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4097/formula-issues-leaders-local-breads

Best of luck!

TS

I've made this twice now. The first time, as others have reported, it came out with a fairly dense crumb. I only had dried rosemary available, so I used that, but halved the amount.

I did spend a lot of time staring at the amount of salt, though - it sounded like a huge amount and sure enough the bread was quite salty when finished.

This second time, I was making it in a low-salt household and about halved the saltt. Result: much puffier loaves, open crumb near the top much like the pictures, and a much better taste experience (at least for me). (I also had a rosemary crisis and wound up substituting a mix of "Herbes de Provence" for the rosemary - that worked out fine.)

There's a French restaurant near me that serves a rosemary bread very like what I think this one is meant to be, and it is definitely saltier than the lower-salt version I made. But I think I will continue making it this way. Though in general I prefer to go with whole-grain breads so don't expect to make this *too* often.

wg

I'm going to drag this out of the past... I too tried this recipe out, with similar results. Almost zero holes compared to the picture in the book. Doesn't look similar whatsoever. Dense crumb structure... would like to hear from others who have tried it. Next time I'll copy the half salt comment, and up the water perhaps. Any other tips?

Hello,

I had the same results as many of you when I made this bread, even increasing the water to 1.5 cups and halving the salt I did not get anything remotely like the big holes in the picture. The crumb in mine was a lot like a Brioche crum?

I wanted to ask if anybody has found a different recipe that renders good results, specifically the big holes? 

Thanks.

I am making this today and found that it was really difficult to develop the gluten.  Any chance the fresh rosemary is inhibiting it by poking and tearing the dough as I knead it?

Btw, I actually found the opposite problem with the flour to water ratio.  I needed to add more flour. Perhaps my scale was off, though.  It is a new one...