Sun-dried Tomato Basil Artisan Bread

This bread.... is too good for words. I am currently in the process of a slew of surgeries, so while I'm taking it easy, I'm subjecting my family to a wealth of new recipes and building myself an arsenal. I got this recipe from an Artisan bread cook book and used the base recipe and technique to add in delicious little gems, but decided that tomato basil was what I wanted to make. And oh my lanta was I right. I'm not a big bread eater, and neither is my mom, but we ate half a loaf before it cooled. It crunchy on the outside and really soft and tender on the inside and just about as good as anything you could get in a bakery without the cost. I think I have my new go-to recipe to keep experimenting on. I suggest you do the same!

Recipe:

1 ½ cups of lukewarm water (just slightly warmer than body temperature)

1 packet of active dry yeast

¾ tablespoon of coarse salt (I used sea salt) (I also just did ½ tbs plus a little for the measurement)

3 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour

Cornmeal for the pizza stone

A palm-full of dried basil

10 sundried tomatoes packed in oil, diced finely

Makes: two small loaves

Tools you will need:

1 larger sized bowl

1 medium sized bowl

A fork

A wooden spoon

Plenty of extra flour

Plastic wrap

A pizza stone

Something to rest the dough on before going in the oven (I used a cookie sheet without edges)

How to:

1. To make the base dough, pour the lukewarm water into the larger of the two bowls along with the yeast and salt. Mix it until the yeast is incorporated

2. Add all of the flour in at once and use the wooden spoon to mix it until it just comes together

3. Sprinkle generous amounts of flour on a work surface to turn the dough out on to make one cohesive lump.

4. Put the dough into the medium sized bowl and loosely cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise for two hours

AT THIS POINT you can refrigerate the dough to make it easier to work with, or just to have to use later. To store, put the dough in a plastic container with a lid and also enough room to account for some rising action.

IF YOU LIKE INSTANT GRATIFICATION….

5. Generously flour your work surface again and turn out the risen dough and make it into one uniformly shaped lump. (I tend to need to coat my hands in flour for this process)

6. Split the lump into two equal pieces and set one to the side. Spread the dough onto the floured work surface so it is relatively square and flat. Sprinkle the diced sundried tomatoes and dried basil over the dough and mush it back together into a circular loaf.  if you decide to leave the dough plain, reshape it into a circular loaf, and place both on a floured cookie sheet without a lip.

7. Allow the dough to rest a final time for about 40 minutes

8. 20 minutes before you bake the bread, put your pizza stone in the oven, sprinkle it with cornmeal and allow it to preheat to 450 degrees for those 20 minutes.

9. Brush the tops of the dough with water (if leaving it plain) or oil (I used the oil that the tomatoes were packed in) and score the tops with a knife.

10. When you’re ready to bake, slide the dough off the cookie sheet, and onto the stone.

11. Bake for 25 minutes

12. Wait five minutes (if you can stand it) before slicing the bread.

13. Try not to drown in your own saliva. It’s that good.