I’ve had this bread bookmarked for ages, but it’s supposed to be cooked in a dutch oven, which I didn’t have. My roommate Alex brought one home recently, so I was finally able to check it out. This particular dutch oven is a huge, heavy, cast iron beast, so it was a bit of a challenge to swing in and out of a hot oven, but the bread was worth it! Other than heaving a huge pot around (and you may have a lighter, enameled version…), it’s super simple – doesn’t even require kneading, and it smells and tastes great.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic powder

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl.

Stir everything together until even. It won’t be a smooth dough at this point, but that’s fine.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours.

Thickly dust a kitchen towel with flour. After the rest, the dough will be wetter and sticky. Wet your hands and shape the dough into a ball. Set the dough seam-side down on the towel. Fold the towel over the dough and let it rise another 2 hours.

With 30 minutes left in the rise, place a five quart dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.

I was in the middle of making tons of cake when I did this, so I preheated the dutch oven on the stove. This worked fine until I was ready to put the dutch oven into the oven, and realized I hadn’t taken out the oven racks, so I had super hot things all over the kitchen. Oops!

When the rise is over and your dutch oven is hot, pull out the dutch oven and flip the dough off the towel into the dutch oven. Shake briefly to even the dough out, then cover and put back in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake another 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove the bread from the hot dutch oven, and cool on a wire rack.

Delicious!

I’m looking forward to trying more dutch oven recipes! I’ll be posting this one to yeastspotting. (I won a bagel miter, which I hadn’t even known existed before then, from yeastspotting recently. Woo!)

Parmesan Herb Bread

From What’s Cookin’ Chicago?

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic powder

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Stir everything together until evenly mixed but still shaggy. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours.

Dust a kitchen towel well with flour. Wet your hands and shape the dough into a ball. Set the dough seam-side down on the towel. Fold the towel over the dough and let it rise another 2 hours.

With 30 minutes left in the rise, place a five quart dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.

When the rise is over and your dutch oven is hot, pull the dutch oven out of the oven and flip the dough off the towel into the dutch oven. Shake briefly to even the dough out, then cover and put back in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake another 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove the bread from both ovens and cool on a wire rack.