1 ½cupswarm water100-110°F for active dry yeast, 120-130°F for instant yeast
Instructions
QUICK DIRECTIONS:
Stir everything together to a shaggy dough
Let the dough rest
Preheat Dutch oven to 450°F
Shape dough
Cook covered 30 minutes
Cook uncovered for 7-15 minutes until color is how you like it
Temp for 190°F
Rest before cutting
DETAILED DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, Parmesan, rosemary, and yeast. Stir the ingredients until the Parmesan is evenly coated with flour and everything is evenly mixed. Tip, when adding ingredients put the yeast and salt on opposite sides of the bowl. Never put the yeast and salt directly on top of each other because the salt could kill the yeast. Stir in the water using a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a shaggy but cohesive dough (see picture). Don’t overwork it. It won't look much like dough at this point and that’s ok. Just make sure there are no big pockets of dry flour. A little dusting of dry flour is fine; it will get moist while the dough rests.
Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let dough sit at room temperature for 1 hour or so and then refrigerate overnight. Check the dough in the morning to see if it has developed enough. (See the blog post above for what it should look like and what to do if it doesn’t look right) TIP: If you mix it in a 2-quart Pyrex measuring bowl you can use the measurement markings to see how much it has grown in volume.
If the dough hasn’t developed any significant volume or air bubbles, move it to a warmer place so it can develop a bit faster. Once it has developed enough, put it back into the fridge. An hour before you want to bake the bread, take the dough out of the fridge and put it on the counter so it can start to come up to room temperature. To be honest, I don’t always remember to do this and the bread has always turned out anyway.
While the dough is coming up to room temperature, put your Dutch oven, including the lid, into your cold oven and start preheating your oven to 450° F. Once your oven is up to temp, leave the Dutch oven in there another 30 minutes to make sure it is fully heated all the way through. I leave the lid off the Dutch oven to make sure the heat can get inside. The extra heat stored in the Dutch oven starts cooking the bread rapidly once you add the dough and this fast cooking helps the bread rise.
While your Dutch oven is preheating for that last 30 minutes, turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. With floured hands, form the dough into a ball. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let rest until the Dutch oven is finished preheating.
After the preheating is done, carefully remove the Dutch oven. If your Dutch oven is enamel coated you can place the bread dough directly into the Dutch oven. If your Dutch oven is raw cast iron, place the dough on a piece of parchment paper before putting it in the Dutch oven. If you don’t have parchment paper you can use aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray to keep the bread from sticking.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the cover and bake for an additional 5-15 minutes uncovered. This time will vary based on your oven and your preference for golden brown color. This uncovered baking gives the loaf it’s final color. You can take it out of the oven when it is the color you like. For the pictures in this post I cooked one loaf uncovered for 10 minutes and the other one for 5 minutes so you could see the difference. Using an instant read thermometer, check for an internal temp of 190°F. If for some reason the color is where you like it but the loaf isn’t 190°F you can put the cover back on and continue cooking. But honestly, I don’t always temp the bread and it’s always been delicious. Enjoy!
Notes
The servings amount is an estimate, as it will depend on how thick your slices are, and how many slices you eat in a sitting. The recipe makes two small loaves.