There’s nothing better than the smell of freshly baked sourdough bread filling your kitchen. Well, actually, if you add roasted garlic and rosemary into your bread dough, the kitchen will start to smell even better! When I posted this recipe for Garlic and Rosemary Sourdough Bread on my YouTube channel, it became an instant favorite of mine, and I know you’re going to love it. Here’s the recipe!
Ingredients
- Roasted Garlic – 100 grams (see instructions)
- Water – 300 grams
- Salt – 10 grams
- Sourdough Starter – 100 grams
- Bread Flour – 450 grams
- Olive Oil – 25 grams (see instructions)
- Dried Rosemary – 3 grams (a few dashes)
Instructions
Feeding the sourdough starter
The night before you want to make your sourdough bread, take 25 grams of sourdough starter out of the fridge. Add 50 grams of bread flour and 50 grams of water to the starter and stir everything together to combine. Stir until no dry bits of flour are left.
Put the lid back on the starter jar and mark the top of the starter with a rubber band so that you can see how much it grows overnight.
Let the starter rise at room temperature overnight, or for about 6-8 hours. It should double in size and be ready to use the next morning.
Want to make your own sourdough starter in just six days? Click here to sign up for my email newsletter and I’ll send you my Sourdough Starter Guide in your first email.
Making the Garlic Confit
First, we need to make the roasted garlic (actually, since this will be garlic that is slowly cooked in oil, it’s garlic confit). Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C). Take one head of garlic and remove the outer papery layers, leaving the individual cloves intact.
Place all of the garlic cloves in a small baking dish and pour enough olive oil over the garlic to cover it completely.
Move the baking dish to the oven and let the garlic cook slowly for about 2 1/2 hours, or until the garlic is soft and caramelized. Remove the garlic from the oven and let it cool.
Take the roasted garlic cloves and transfer them onto a paper towel and pat them dry to remove the excess oil. You can also use a fork to gently mash the cloves into a rough paste.
Now you’ve got plenty of soft and caramelized garlic cloves, and a beautiful, garlic-infused olive oil. You’ll use both to flavor this sourdough bread!
Mixing the dough
In a mixing bowl, combine 300g water, 10g salt, and 100g active sourdough starter. Stir the mixture until the salt is dissolved and the starter is evenly distributed.
Add 450g bread flour to the mixture and stir until a shaggy dough forms.
Once the ingredients have formed a rough dough, add 25 grams of olive oil right on top of the dough. You can use the garlic-infused olive oil that you made in the previous step when cooking the garlic.
Squeeze the oil into the dough with your hands for a few minutes so that the flour starts to absorb the oil. The dough will still feel slightly oily but that’s OK.
Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or a sheet of plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. This short rest period will help the dough hold together better when you are doing the stretch and folds in the next step.
Stretch and Folds
After 30 minutes, uncover the dough and perform a set of stretch and folds. To do this, take an edge of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over the center of the dough. Repeat with the other edges, going around the bowl until you have completed about 30 stretch and folds. The dough will become smoother and easier to handle. Cover the dough and let it rest for another 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, uncover the dough and place half of the roasted garlic cloves on top of the dough. Press the garlic into the dough with your fingertips. Then, sprinkle a few shakes (probably two teaspoons) of dried rosemary on top of the dough.
To incorporate the garlic and rosemary into the dough, perform a second set of stretch and folds. This will gently fold the garlic and rosemary into the dough in layers. Cover the dough and let it rest for another 30 minutes.
After the 30 minute rest, add the remaining garlic cloves and a few sprinkles of dried rosemary on top of the dough. Perform one last set of stretch and folds to incorporate the garlic and rosemary into the dough.
The First Rise (Bulk Fermentation)
Move the dough into an oiled glass container with a lid and let it rise at room temperature for 4-6 hours, or until it is roughly doubled in size.
When the dough is doubled in size, you can move on to the preshape step.
The Preshape
Take the dough out of the glass bowl and place it seam side down onto a clean kitchen counter.
Gently shape the dough with your hands into a smooth ball and let it rest on the counter for 30 minutes. During this rest period the dough will relax and it will be easier to shape the dough into an oval later.
Note: While the dough is resting for 30 minutes, you can leave it uncovered. If your kitchen has a lot of air drafts you may want to cover it up with a kitchen towel to keep it from drying out.
The Final Shape
After the 30 minute rest, flip the dough over onto a lightly floured counter. Now, the sticky side should be facing up and the smooth side should be against the floured counter.
Gently flatten the dough and stretch it into a square. Fold the right third of the dough over the middle third of the dough, and then fold the left third of the dough over the middle third as well. Press down the seam where the two sides meet.
Take the far end of the dough and start rolling it towards yourself until the dough forms a tight cylinder. The dough should now be in a typical oval or loaf shape.
Proofing
Prepare an oval-shaped banneton basket with a liberal dusting a rice flour or bread flour. (Here’s the banneton basket that I use from Amazon).
Transfer the dough into the banneton basket upside down, so that the seam is facing up. Cover basket with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise at room temperature for about 2 hours.
At the end of the proofing time, the dough should have grown significantly and it will feel puffy to the touch.
Scoring the dough
When the dough is almost done proofing, preheat your oven to 500°F (around 260°C) for 30 minutes with a Dutch oven inside.
When the oven is preheated, flip the dough out of the banneton basket onto a sheet of parchment paper. Dust of any excess flour that is still on top of the dough.
Score a long slash into the top of the dough with a razor blade or bread lame. You can also score two curved score marks into the dough like I show you in the video.
Baking
Transfer the scored dough carefully into the hot Dutch oven, lifting at each end of the parchment paper. It’s OK for the parchment paper to remain under the dough while it’s baking.
Bake the bread for 20 minutes with the Dutch oven lid on to trap the steam.
After 20 minutes, remove the lid from the Dutch oven to release the steam, and admire how much your bread has puffed up! That’s called oven spring and it’s beautiful. I wrote 11 steps to get better oven spring on your sourdough bread (click here to read that article for some golden tips).
Continue baking the bread for 12-15 more minutes with the lid off. Take the bread out of the oven when it reaches the desired color that you’re looking for.
Cooling
Transfer the bread to a wire rack to cool for at least one hour before slicing.
Once your bread is cool, you can slice into it and enjoy the taste of roasted garlic and rosemary.
The roasted garlic cloves show up in little pockets throughout the dough, so they’re not in every single bite of this bread, but thanks to the garlic-infused olive oil in the dough, the whole loaf is permeated with the delicious smell and taste of garlic. It’s not too much, either, it’s just right.
The rosemary is also a perfect pairing to the garlicky flavor.
If you ask me, this bread goes great alongside a hearty bowl of soup, but it would make an amazing grilled cheese sandwich as well.
For another classic Grant Bakes sourdough recipe, click here to go to my Sourdough Ciabatta Recipe.
Some of My Favorite Baking Tools (Affiliate Links):
Baker of Seville Bread Lame
Oval Banneton Basket
Non-Stick Bread Pan
Non-Stick Focaccia Pan
Garlic and Rosemary Sourdough Bread
This loaf of sourdough bread is packed with dried rosemary and roasted garlic cloves. The addition of garlic-infused olive oil brings an extra element that purfumes this entire loaf of bread with even more roasted garlic flavor. It's also very easy to make.
Ingredients
- Roasted Garlic – 100 grams (see instructions)
- Water – 300 grams
- Salt – 10 grams
- Sourdough Starter – 100 grams
- Bread Flour – 450 grams
- Olive Oil – 25 grams (see instructions)
- Dried Rosemary – 3 grams (a few dashes)
Instructions
Feeding the sourdough starter
- The night before you want to make your sourdough bread, take 25 grams of sourdough starter out of the fridge.
- Add 50 grams of bread flour and 50 grams of water to the starter and stir everything together to combine. Stir until no dry bits of flour are left.
- Put the lid back on the starter jar and mark the top of the starter with a rubber band so that you can see how much it grows overnight.
- Let the starter rise at room temperature overnight, or for about 6-8 hours. It should double in size and be ready to use the next morning.
Making the Roasted Garlic (or Garlic Confit)
- Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C). Take one head of garlic and remove the outer papery layers, leaving the individual cloves intact.
- Place all of the garlic cloves in a small baking dish and pour enough olive oil over the garlic to cover it completely.
- Move the baking dish to the oven and let the garlic cook slowly for about 2 1/2 hours, or until the garlic is soft and caramelized. Remove the garlic from the oven and let it cool.
- Now you’ve got plenty of soft and caramelized garlic cloves, and a beautiful, garlic-infused olive oil. You’ll use both to flavor this sourdough bread!
Mixing the dough
- In a mixing bowl, combine 300g water, 10g salt, and 100g active sourdough starter. Stir the mixture until the salt is dissolved and the starter is evenly distributed.
- Add 450g bread flour to the mixture and stir until a shaggy dough forms.
Once the ingredients have formed a rough dough, add 25 grams of olive oil right on top of the dough. You can use the garlic-infused olive oil that you made in the previous step when cooking the garlic. - Squeeze the oil into the dough with your hands for a few minutes so that the flour starts to absorb the oil. The dough will still feel slightly oily but that’s OK.
- Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or a sheet of plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. This short rest period will help the dough hold together better when you are doing the stretch and folds in the next step.
Stretch and Folds
- After 30 minutes, uncover the dough and perform a set of stretch and folds. To do this, take an edge of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over the center of the dough. Repeat with the other edges, going around the bowl until you have completed about 30 stretch and folds. The dough will become smoother and easier to handle. Cover the dough and let it rest for another 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, uncover the dough and place half of the roasted garlic cloves on top of the dough. Press the garlic into the dough with your fingertips. Then, sprinkle a few shakes (probably two teaspoons) of dried rosemary on top of the dough.
- To incorporate the garlic and rosemary into the dough, perform a second set of stretch and folds. This will gently fold the garlic and rosemary into the dough in layers. Cover the dough and let it rest for another 30 minutes.
- After the 30 minute rest, add the remaining garlic cloves and a few sprinkles of dried rosemary on top of the dough. Perform one last set of stretch and folds to incorporate the garlic and rosemary into the dough.
The First Rise (Bulk Fermentation)
- After the third set of stretch and folds, move the dough into an oiled glass container with a lid and let it rise at room temperature for 4-6 hours, or until it is roughly doubled in size.
- When the dough has doubled in size, you can move on to the preshape step.
The Preshape
- Take the dough out of the glass bowl and place it seam side down onto a clean kitchen counter.
- Gently shape the dough with your hands into a smooth ball and let it rest on the counter for 30 minutes. During this rest period the dough will relax and it will be easier to shape the dough into an oval later.
Note: While the dough is resting for 30 minutes, you can leave it uncovered. If your kitchen has a lot of air drafts you may want to cover it up with a kitchen towel to keep it from drying out.
The Final Shape
- After the 30 minute rest, flip the dough over onto a lightly floured counter. Now, the sticky side should be facing up and the smooth side should be against the floured counter.
- Gently flatten the dough and stretch it into a square. Fold the right third of the dough over the middle third of the dough, and then fold the left third of the dough over the middle third as well. Press down the seam where the two sides meet.
- Take the far end of the dough and start rolling it towards yourself until the dough forms a tight cylinder. The dough should now be in a typical oval or loaf shape.
Proofing
- Prepare an oval-shaped banneton basket with a liberal dusting a rice flour or bread flour.
- Transfer the dough into the banneton basket upside down, so that the seam is facing up. Cover basket with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise at room temperature for about 2 hours.
- At the end of the proofing time, the dough should have grown significantly and it will feel puffy to the touch.
Scoring the dough
- When the dough is almost done proofing, preheat your oven to 500°F (around 260°C) for 30 minutes with a Dutch oven inside.
- When the oven is preheated, flip the dough out of the banneton basket onto a sheet of parchment paper. Dust of any excess flour that is still on top of the dough.
- Score a long slash into the top of the dough with a razor blade or bread lame. You can also score two curved score marks into the dough like I show you in the video.
Baking
- Transfer the scored dough carefully into the hot Dutch oven, lifting at each end of the parchment paper. It’s OK for the parchment paper to remain under the dough while it’s baking.
- Bake the bread for 20 minutes with the Dutch oven lid on to trap the steam.
After 20 minutes, remove the lid from the Dutch oven to release the steam, and admire how much your bread has puffed up! That’s called oven spring and it’s beautiful. - Continue baking the bread for 12-15 more minutes with the lid off. Take the bread out of the oven when it reaches the desired color that you’re looking for.
Cooling
- Transfer the bread to a wire rack to cool for at least one hour before slicing.
- Once your bread is cool, you can slice into it and enjoy the taste of roasted garlic and rosemary.
- The roasted garlic cloves show up in little pockets throughout the dough, so they’re not in every single bite of this bread, but thanks to the garlic-infused olive oil in the dough, the whole loaf is permeated with the delicious smell and taste of garlic. It’s not too much, either, it’s just right. The rosemary is also a perfect pairing to the garlicky flavor.
Notes
- This bread goes great alongside a hearty bowl of soup, but it would make an amazing grilled cheese sandwich as well.