Rosemary “Very Little Knead” Bread

Instructions

Mix the dry ingredients together gently with a spatula to ensure they are evenly distributed.

Next pour in warm water and stir briefly until the dough starts to come together. Then, get in there with your hands and knead for about a minute until everything is fully incorporated. If the dough sticks to the sides of the bowl, you may need a bit more flour—if you have a ton of loose flour, however, add a couple of tsp of water. Form into a round shape.

Drizzle the olive oil over the dough and turn the ball shape over once to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at (warm) room temperature for 30 minutes.

Uncover your bowl and, working with lightly oiled hands, loosen the dough and fold the farthest end toward you. Then, fold over first the right side of your dough, then the left side. Lastly, pull the bottom end up and over, creating a nicely rounded package. Recover your bowl, and let sit until it has risen by half, about an hour and a half.

Lightly flour a large cutting board and drop your dough onto it. Cover with a towel and let the dough rest while you rinse out your bowl and lightly dust it with flour.

Next, fold your dough four times again, mimicking what you did previously—top to bottom fold, right to left fold, left to right fold, bottom to top fold.

Turn the newly formed “dough package” so that your seam is on the bottom. Lightly dust the dough with flour and let it rest for another five minutes, allowing time for the seam to settle.

Recover your bowl one last time, and let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled, about an hour and a half.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees and set a dutch oven inside to preheat. This step is key-- if you do not preheat your dutch oven, your loaf will stick to the bottom of the pan! Remove the dutch oven pot once fully heated and (with floured hands) gently place your dough inside, being careful that it doesn’t lose it’s rounded shape. Quickly, before the dutch oven loses it’s heat, score the top of your loaf in whatever fancy pattern you choose (I like a simple three parallel lines about an inch and a half apart). Sprinkle a few drops of water onto the dough and cover. Bake for 15 minutes at 500 degrees, then reduce the oven temperature to 450 and bake for a further 15 minutes. Uncover the dutch oven for the next and final 15 to 20 minutes of baking, until your bread becomes a lovely golden brown.

Remove your loaf from the dutch oven and place onto a wire rack to cool for at least an hour before cutting.