November 15, 2015 - 9:52am
Lemon/Rosemary Baguette - the best ever!
Last night I wanted a baguette that would go well with Italian food. I made a basic AP dough: 2 c flour/ 1 c water/ 1T yeast/ 2t kosher salt, some olive oil - and I added chopped rosemary and grated lemon zest, about 1/4 c. each - (less rosemary). I painted the top with olive oil and sprinkled coarse salt on it as I put it in the oven. I had been wanting to try this for a long time and finally did it. It was absolutely heavenly. Might be the only bread I make going forward.
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Perhaps a recipe and method write up, step by step, with pictures.
Oh - great idea. The pix will be of the very end of the loaf, however, haha, as we gobbled that baby up as fast as we could. I'll get it posted. It was my easy/ quick all-purpose recipe, not hard even without pix.
Rosemary/ Lemon Bread
Sorry - there are no pix. We gobbled this up so fast.
Soak for 5 minutes:
1 T instant yeast
1 c. warm water
1 t. sugar
Add:
1 ½ c. AP flour
½ c. semolina
2 ½ tsp. kosher salt (NOTE - use 1 1/2 tsp REGULAR salt)
2 T. olive oil
(*semolina – you don’t need it, but it adds a nice tensile strength to the dough)
4 t rosemary (cut needles from the woody stems and chop fine)
¼ + c. lemon zest (I used 4 lemons, did not measure precisely)
Add flour and other ingredients to yeast + water until dough is sticky. Knead briefly, adding flour only until it ‘feels like a baby’s bottom.’ (Haha, sorry, that’s how I was taught.) A little bit sticky is fine; too much flour is not good. Make a small boule, put into greased bowl, cover with Saran wrap and a towel, and let rise (1/2 hour or so).
Lightly flour pastry cloth or working surface. Knead briefly, form into baguette, lightly dust parchment paper with corn meal. Place baguette on parchment paper on baking sheet and let rise 10-15 minutes while oven heats.
Heat oven 425
Brush baguette with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt, and slash crust.
Bake 10 minutes at 425
Reduce heat to 375
Bake 10 minutes at 375
Bake at 5 minute increments until done
Baguette is done when internal temperature measures 190 or so and crust is brown.
Bookmarked for me to do. Rosemary and Olive Oil... Yum!
Do try it - it was fast/ start to finish, and so delicious. Oh, and so easy.
bboop
Herbs and citrus. Wonderful things. I have made a note.
One thing, is the 1 T yeast accurate, not one 1 t?
Thanks,
dobie
Dobie - I used 1 T with 2 c flour because I wanted it right away. If you are going slow and hydrating you will want less. This is just my Quick & Dirty 'let's have bread for dinner' recipe. Thanks for clarifying, Dobie.
bboop,
Thanks for that info. I understand.
I am going to try a variation (slower, and in fact I might even go sourdough) of your recipe later this week.
It just sounds so good. Of course, who knows what liberties I might take (it is 'anything can happen' Thursday after all) but I will try to keep as true to your recipe as possible. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Thanks again,
dobie
Oh, that sounds delicious. It is the combination of flavors, really, that makes it. I saw one recipe that called for 1/3 c. lemon zest, even; another called for 2 t. I upped that. Keep me posted/ I am sure yours will be delicious.
bboop
I will definitely do that.
But I should forewarn you, that since I lack both fresh rosemary and lemon at the moment, I will probably work with thyme and lime (both of which I have plenty of) and which, after all, rhyme, so how bad could it be?
Herb and citrus in essence. I might just crack a little pepper into the mix.
dobie
bboop
As it turns out, other events got in way of me starting my Rosemary/Lemon bread a few days ago. So I took that opportunity to procure some fresh rosemary and lemons (so, no Thyme/Lime this time, but I will in future). I think orange might be interesting as well.
The rosemary was $1.49 for about 20 beautiful 6 inch sprigs. That's more than a year's worth for me. I think I will 'root' a few (my old plant died for some reason last year) and 'de-needle' the rest and freeze them in a storage bag for future use.
I'm not in a rush, so I will be going much slower. I will start my (100% hydration) poolish tonight. I'm going to use Active Dry Yeast instead of sourdough starter for this first bake (probably 1/8 ts in the poolish and another 1/8 when building the dough tomorrow morning).
I think I will add the rosemary and lemon zest in the poolish to let it really permeate throughout the mix. There are risks to that, but one's I will take. No pepper now, either.
After that, I'll pretty much follow your procedures. I'll let you know how it turns out.
dobie
Oh golly, it's probably a So Cal recipe then. We have lemon trees in back and a couple of rosemary bushes that have taken over. I'll send a box over. Your bread sounds good. I saw one rosemary/lemon loaf mentioned where they made a hole in the top of a boule, poured olive oil + rosemary + lemon zest in, and then folded/ kneeded it in at that point. I put it all in with the flour at first. Next time I might even use more zest. On to biscotti!!
bboop
When I say rosemary plant, I mean at most 18 inches high. Served my purposes well.
When you say rosemary 'bush', I'm thinking something way beyond that size.
I have a sister who lives about 100 miles from SanFran and the fruit and veg that she can grow there is nothing but astonishing to me. Lemons, limes, plums, avacado, bay and pretty much anything else you might desire to grow.
It almost makes me want to move there (I'm on Long Island, NY), but not quite. Perhaps, I enjoy the struggle (or the sailing).
I will take your hint and not be shy with the zest.
dobie
Ah yes, we are truly spoiled here. But then we don't have weather ;(
bboop
So I made my slower variation based on your recipe and it came out quite well.
Mistakes were made along the way. I forgot to add the ts of sugar which I think would be better included as the lemon zest can be a little bitter.
I reduced the EVOoil to 1 Tb instead of 2 Tb. Next time I will use 2 Tb. In fact, I will probably use butter.
Here's how I twisted up your recipe.
Rosemary/Lemon Bread (Slow Variation) 67% hydration
1.25 Cup Bread flour (172g)
0.25 Cup Whole Wheat flour (34g)
0.5 Cup Semolina (88g)
7/8 Cup Water (198g)
1 Tb EVOoil (12g) - will use 2 Tb next time
1 ts Sugar (accidently omited)
2 ts Kosher Salt (8g)
3/8 ts Active Dry Yeast (1g) - will use 1/2 ts (1.5g) next time
1/4 Cup Lemon Zest - will use 1/3 Cup next time
2 ts Rosemary (fine mince) - will use 3 ts next time
The night before the bake, I added the Lemon Zest, Rosemary, Semolina, WW flour, 5oz of Water and 1/8 ts yeast to make a poolish, left at room temp overnight.
I think the Lemon Zest retarded the activity of the yeast, so next time I will use 1/4 ts of yeast in the poolish which will bring the total of yeast to 1/2 ts (1.5g).
About 12 hours later, I put the poolish in the KitchenAid bowl along with the remaining 2oz Water, the Bread flour, Kosher Salt, Oil, Sugar (if I had remembered it) and 1/4 ts yeast. This is a pretty small amount of dough for the KAid, but eventually it did get up on the hook and I let it knead for about 4 minutes at speed 2.
Then into a lightly oiled bowl and covered. Rest for 15 minutes then did a stretch and fold which I repeated every 20-30 for about 2 hours. By the fourth stretch and fold, the dough had enough of that and was feeling quite good.
Pre-formed into a boule, let proof (covered) for about 1 hour. A little bench flour at this point as I gave the boule its first tensioning. After another hour, I tensioned again. After another hour, one more gentle tensioning, generously covered in rice flour and into a cold Dutch Oven (the lid was pre-heated in a 500F oven.
I scored the boule and put it in the DO into the 500F oven and turned the heat down to 465F. After 15 minutes, I removed the DO lid and turned the oven down to 425F. After another 15 minutes, I removed the boule from the DO and finished the bake on the rack at 400F for 10 minutes.
The bread was 210F internal at that point and nicely baked. Good oven lift and nice crust. I let it cool for an hour or so, and then, chomp, chomp. It was quite delicious. A pretty light and open crumb.
So next time I will use 2 Tb oil (not 1), remember to add the 1 ts Sugar and bump the yeast in the poolish to 1/4 ts, not 1/8. I will also bump up the Rosemary to 3 ts instead of 2 and bring the Lemon Zest to 1/3 Cup instead of 1/4 Cup.
I wish I could post the pics I took, but I'm having trouble finding the 'tree icon' the tutorial mentions.
All in all, it was very successful. Easy and delicious.
Thanks for the inspiration.
dobie
That's awesome, Dobie, and I'm glad it worked out. I was a little hesitant about posting my recipe as it was not really measured accurately. I did see one r/l recipe where she put a hole in the boule, poured the EVOO + rosemary + lemon zest in at that point and continued folding/ kneading. Perhaps that avoided the lemon slowing down the yeast. Interesting that it would do that. I'm making r/l baguettes for Thanksgiving. So glad yours worked out and you enjoyed it. Thanks for the 1/3c zest suggestion, too. That sounds wonderful.
bboop
I was sorta winging it according to some things I have been working on lately, just to see if I could make them work with this type of bread and it worked out well.
I'm hemming and hawing regarding increasing the lemon zest. It's not overwhelming, but's it's there. But it might become overwhelming with any more. The rosemary, which I am always afraid will be overpowering, can definitely use a boost.
I really think butter would be better. I'm also thinking I might cut down on the salt just a wee bit next time. We'll see.
It's always different when you eat a bread with a meal compared to by itself, which is what made me reconsider how much zest to use. With the meal I thought yes to more, but by itself, I think it is sufficient. I also think a few cracks of pepper might be nice next time as well.
I've got a lot of rosemary to go. I'm definitely thinking about orange zest as well. I might just do a Rosemary/Orange version this week. I'll let you know (it might be after Thanksgiving as there is so much already commited to).
Thanks
dobie
bboop
This is just a test.
This is my first attempt at posting pics thru Photobucket. Please let me know if it works, but give me a minute or two to check out the best way.
http://i1037.photobucket.com/albums/a454/baguette/20151121RosemaryLemonOverSm_zps7xtfu3ey.jpg?t=1448221715
dobie
Dobie, is that the loaf you made? It is just beautiful. That is my next goal - a beautiful loaf. Of anything. What is your secret? besides following the recipe carefully, patience, expertise? haha.
bboop
Yes it is.
Actually, other than using your recipe as a guide line, there was nothing exact in my recipe. I left you what I did, but that could also use some refinement.
As you implied, if there is any secret, it would be patience and trusting your instincts.
Tensioning would be a key, no matter whether a roll, baguette, boule or whatever. I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but I would be willing to share with you the bit that I have found successfull so far.
Apparently you could see that image, so I will post the other two in that same format. I would prefer that they just appear in the post, rather than having to click to a link to see them, but, it's all new to me in that regard. I will hopefully get there, but it is a struggle at this point.
I will post the links to all three images in my next message.
Thanks again for the wonderful concept of herb/citrus bread.
dobie
bboop
Hopefully this all works, at least as links.
http://s1037.photobucket.com/user/baguette/media/20151121RosemaryLemonOverSm_zps7xtfu3ey.jpg.html?filters[user]=144323157&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=2
http://s1037.photobucket.com/user/baguette/media/20151121RosemaryLemonSiderSm_zpsaih6dymm.jpg.html?filters[user]=144323157&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0
http://s1037.photobucket.com/user/baguette/media/20151121RosemaryLemonCrumbSm_zpspjm8w2tv.jpg.html?filters[user]=144323157&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1
Please let me know.
dobie
Here you go!
Thank you so much Kathy,
dobie
Looks yummy!
KathyF
Thank you, it truly was. Thank bboop as the source.
However, how did you get the pic to pop up on the forum page? Personally, I am flumaxted in the attempt.
Thanks
dobie
I followed your link to your image page. Under "Share This Photo" I copied the direct link. Then back in the message box I clicked on the little tree and pasted in the link and clicked insert. And since the image was so large, I selected the image, clicked on the tree again to edit and put in smaller dimensions.
Thank you Kathy
I am going to try again and heed your advice.
I did it successfully once before (on another computer, on another forum) but I just can't seem to get it to do the same very basic stuff at this point on this computer. I will keep trying.
I know this must seem odd, but I can't even see the 'tree' icon, as well as many other things (images) on the TFL forum.
Long story short, it's my own fault.
If you were so inclinded to do the same with the other two pics, I would be grateful, but I wouldn't ask you to as I don't want to be a pain.
Regardless, thank you very much for what you have done and offered.
dobie
Ah, yes, it is back to - "I will FEEL when this is right/ hang the instructions.' You are welcome for the blend - I had read it somewhere and it just sounded so divine. Have a great Thanksgiving. What a fun obsession, isn't it?? (Or let's call it 'passion.') My niece, who likes to bake (a bit of) bread, looked at me askance when I suggested she buy 5# of yeast to save money, haha. I told her i was supposed to make 96 loaves and I had used it in 3 months.
bboop
Very interesting you should say that. It makes me realize that I usually operate (bake) one of three ways.
Trying to follow a recipe as exactly as I can, or using a recipe as a general guide line to where ever it leads me, and; no recipe at all (just flying by the seat of my pants).
They are all worthwile persuits that I tend to fluctuate between one and the other as the week (or month) goes on. Disciplined and undisciplined in essence, but 'fun' all.
BTW, if 5# is 5 pounds, that's a lot of yeast. You could probably supply your entire extended family with yeast for years to come with that amount. Regardless, it is a better buy then by those little packets.
dobie
Oh, duh, I meant of course those ONE pound packages @ $5. Yes, I go back and forth too - seat of pants is good, but I'm on a learning curve as well, with new tricks like hydration and slow rising. It is nice to assimilate the new techniques and get to the point where they are familiar.
Ahh, thank you for clarifying. One pound, got it.
I concur that hydration is a worthy persuit to consider (and I do my best with it). I have learned that it is a fluid (no pun intended) definition, depending on the particulars of flours and other ingredients.
While there is certainly cause for 'I need it now' bread, slow rise does have it's advantages. I'm sure you will have fun playing with it.
dobie