A Loaf of Fresh Herb Bread

One of my summer cooking goals is to get back to baking homemade bread. It is something I love to do but have largely set it aside while other things took priority. The first bread that am making is “Fresh Herb Bread” using some of the abundance of herbs which are growing in my garden. I don’t always grow herbs. Plus, I have discovered that not all herbs can be successfully added to bread dough. This summer, my garden rosemary, thyme and marjoram are excelling. These fresh, low-moisture herbs are so pungent; they will work well in my bread recipe. I still have alot of the SAF-Instant brand of yeast. I am using my a food processor to knead the dough; this is an easy and relatively quick way to bake bread. The aroma and flavor of home made bread just can’t be beat!

So Many Bread Recipes

Over the years, I’ve made all sort of breads, used different types of yeast and flour and added all kinds of ingredients to the bread recipes. Some recipes have worked well, some have flopped. This includes cracked wheat (or bulgar) bread. I imagined that I would grind my own flour. Hah! Wheat berries do add lots of nutritional value and add a nutty flavor. However, they are hard as a rock and difficult to crush. One year, I tried to bake olive and basil bread (it turned out purple and green). Oh yes, beer batter bread is something I’ve baked (very bitter). Today, I am featuring some of the herbs growing in my summer garden. And, I’m pleased that this bread turned out successfully.

My favorite way to eat homemade bread — and whatever is added to the loaf — is to toast the bread, spread on a little margarine and have glass of tomato juice or Bloody Mary close by. Then I enjoy the bread in my backyard in the morning. Here, I turned my “Olive and Basil Bread” into a BLT sandwich.

Food Processor Bread Dough and Instant Yeast “on Steroids”

Since I have the brand of SAF-Instant Yeast on hand, I thought I’d make a quick and easy herb bread recipe using my food processor. The food processor does the kneading — there is no tedious kneading with your hands. This recipe doesn’t require letting the dough rise a second time, so making the bread goes relatively quickly.

Plus, instant yeast starts to act almost immediately — almost like “yeast on steroids.” You don’t need to add the yeast to warm water to let it activate; that’s already done. Just add the yeast directly to the flour and off we go. Here’s one loaf of my “Fresh Herb Bread.”

There are some trade-off’s with using instant yeast rather than traditional active yeast. Although a little more time consuming, traditional active yeast makes breads with the best flavor, in my opinion. I have a wonderful recipe for “Cracked Wheat Bread” made with traditional active yeast which I’ll post sometime in the future.

Recipe Ingredients

This recipe makes one loaf of bread. Large recipes don’t fit into my food processor bowl. So, this is a relatively small recipe — but one loaf is okay.

Here are the ingredients for my recipe. Traditional bread recipes basically contain only flour, a pinch of salt, yeast and water. And, perhaps a small amount of shortening (oil or butter). I added just a bit of honey for flavor but typically there is very little sugar in a bread recipe. No eggs or milk are included in bread recipes (unless you are making challah). Although cracked wheat (bulgar) is shown, this is an optional ingredient. It adds flavor and nutritional value, but doesn’t help the structure of the bread. Notice that I used bread flour in this recipe. I have better luck making bread when using bread flour rather than all-purpose flour. Of course, I added fresh herbs from my garden.

Which herbs made it into my recipe?

I planted several types of herbs in my garden this year. Rosemary, mint and garlic chives are perennials and continue to thrive over the winter months. However, other herbs need to be replanted each year. This includes dill, parsley and cilantro (winter herbs), and basil, thyme, oregano, marjoram and sage (summer herbs).

I have learned from experience that broad-leaf herbs, such as parsley, mint, sage and basil, don’t do well when cooked or baked. They lose their aromatic flavors and need to be added at the end of cooking or used as a raw ingredient. So, that left thyme, rosemary and marjoram. (The oregano didn’t do well this year.)

Here are thyme (top left), rosemary (top right) and marjoram (bottom).

These three low-moisture herbs are aromatic and potent.

To get these herbs ready to add to the bread dough, strip them from the stems. Then chop into small pieces. I used both fresh herbs — straight from the garden — and ones which dried for a day or two on my kitchen counter. I’ve not had much luck trying to grind fresh herbs with a food mortar. — I use a kitchen knife to chop them up.

Alternatively grind thyme and oregano (or marjoram) leaves in a food chopper. Purchase fresh rosemary leaves if you are not growing them in your garden. (I think they grow everywhere.)

Fresh herbs are alot more pungent that dried herbs. However, if you don’t have fresh herbs, then dried herbs which are purchased at a grocery store can be substituted.

Making the Recipe – Simple Steps

Making this bread in the food processor is so easy. Here’s what I do.

Add 2 cups of the bread flour, yeast, chopped herbs and salt to the food processor bowl. Pulse to combine or use a spatula to distribute the all the ingredients with the flour.

Heat the water and butter to 120 – 130 degrees in a microwavable bowl. (This took 1-1/2 minute in my microwave.) This is a little warmer than for traditional yeast. The water should be “hot” but not steaming and you can still dip a finger in the water. The butter should melt. I use a quick-read thermometer to check the water temperature. Make sure to stir the water prior to checking temperature as microwave ovens often heat liquids unevenly. The water at the bottom may be hotter than at the top.

Heating the water to the proper temperature is important to get this instant yeast to work immediately. The dough will rise much faster if the water is nice and “hot” but not too hot.

Add both the warm water/butter and the honey to the food processor bowl.

Mix the liquids with the flour mixture in the food processor for one minute. The dough is sticky and elastic — like a sponge.

Add the remaining 1 cup of flour and pulse on and off until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms into a ball. Then “knead” by pulsing on and off for another minute. The dough shouldn’t be “sticky” and difficult to handle. You can easily remove the dough from the food processor bowl.

When you remove the dough from the food processor bowl, it should be nice and warm.

Knead a couple of times on a very lightly floured board. Oil a bread pan — bottom and sides. Then shape into a log roll a little larger than the bread pan length and transfer into the bread pan. Turn over to coat all sides with oil.

Bread should be covered as it rises otherwise the top will dry out. I’ve come up with a new system which I like to use. I oil a piece of plastic wrap and then place it loosely over the bread — crunching the plastic wrap at the sides of the bread pan to the bread has a place to rise without crowding the plastic wrap.

Let the loaf rise in a warm place. (I turn my oven on to 180 degrees.) If all has gone well, the loaf should double in size in 30 to 45 minutes. If not, let the bread rise a little longer. However, after 1-1/2 hours, time to give up. It’s not going to rise further.

Carefully peel off the plastic wrap.

Bake for 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. The time depends on what size bread pan you have used — either 9″x5″ or 8″x4″.

We have a loaf of pungent-herb bread.

I am enjoying lots of loaves of “Fresh Herb Bread.” I have made this recipe so many times that I’ve run out of bread flour. That’s a testiment to the fact that this recipe works — many times! Fortunately, I love homemade bread and will never tire of it. Homemade bread stales quickly. It also freezes well, so some of these loaves will be frozen and used later.

Enjoy the recipe and the pungent flavor of fresh herbs!