- 2 ½ c flour (bread flour is ideal because of the extra gluten, but all purpose works just fine)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 c warm water
- 2 tsp dry active yeast
- 6-8 cloves or ½ head roasted garlic, instructions below – optional
1. To roast garlic: preheat oven to 350 degrees F. If you have individual cloves cut off just the tops and then put it in a pan with a generous dollop of olive oil, some water to mix into it, and sprinkle on salt and fresh cracked pepper. If you have a head of garlic you could just slice the top off the whole head and put it into the pan with the olive oil and fill the water a third way up the head. Add the salt and pepper to top. Cover with foil and bake for 45 min- 1 hour. When done take it out of the ‘shells’ by squeezing the closed end of the clove.
2. Put the warm water in a bowl and add the yeast to it. Then add the sugar (to feed the hungry buggers!) Let sit 20-30 minutes, I usually do this and walk away doing other things. You want to get it all foamy on top. If it’s cold in the room try to put it near something warm, like your oven or stove top if you’re using it, because it may take the yeast a little more time to get where you want it.
3. Mix the flour (you can sift, I don’t because I don’t have a sifter and it works fine) with the salt in a Kitchenaid bowl. Add in the roasted garlic cloves and yeast mix and start a 10 minute timer for kneading when the dough starts to come together. (The garlic cloves, if using, will disintegrate into the dough so there shouldn’t be big chunks of garlic throughout the bread, and even though it sounds like a lot of garlic, roasted garlic has a much mellower flavor so it won’t be overpowering.)
4. After kneading 10 minutes, form into a smooth ball. It should be just a little tacky. Let rise in an oiled bowl that’s covered with a towel for 1 hour. Again if the room is cold I would suggest putting it near something warm to help it rise.
5. After the hour punch it down and pull out of the bowl. Cut the dough into half. Now you can form it one of two ways. If you don’t care if there’s air bubbles in the dough (holes when you slice it) then you could just easily roll with your hands into a long “rope-like” shape and be done. Or if you don’t want holes because it’ll be used for bruschetta or dipping and such then I suggest rolling it out with a rolling pin into a rectangular shape (it doesn’t have to be perfect) and on the long end start to roll it tightly into a “rope-like” shape. Gently roll the ends to get them to taper slightly. They look really thin for bread at this point, but its okay! Place them on your baking sheet of preference and separate by at least 3” and cover with a hand towel (near a warm place) and let rise another 45 min- 1 hour.
6. When you have about 25-30 min left to rise I suggest preheating your oven to 450 degrees F because even though your oven may say it’s reached that temp quicker than that, stoves are usually off a lot in temp and so giving it this extra time helps get it actually to this high temp. Although this may not always be true, but our stove is old and I have found it to be true for us...
7. When you’re done rising quickly place the bread in the oven on a middle keeping the door open for as little as possible so the temperature stays constant as much as possible.
8. Then put the 1 c hot water into a broiler pan or oven safe pot. And again quickly put into the oven on a lower rack. This part is only necessary if you want that characteristic baguette crust.
9. Bake for 15-18 minutes (I tend towards 15 minutes in my oven because that’s when it’s golden brown), but keep an eye on it because it’ll brown really dark if you don’t.
When done take out of the oven and cool somewhat before slicing.
Our favorite is to toast slices of this for bruschetta or a spinach and artichoke dip, mmmm dreamy….
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