Rosemary Bread

Man do I love Macaroni Grill. You should too! They feed you fabulous bread until you can't even open your mouth for another bite. And the food, well its just dandy too, but I can't help but fill up on their fabulous bread before I even see my salad! With the forecast being no eating out for us any time soon, I put together this rosemary bread and man is it good.

Rosemary Bread:

1 tablespoon dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons rosemary

Place yeast, sugar and warm water in large bowl or Mixer and allow mixture to become bubbly. (By warm I mean hotter than look warm, but the kind a kid could touch, with no pain that is.)
Mix in 1 T butter,(make sure its soft) salt, and 2 cups of flour. (If like me you like to make everything "healthy" and think you can skip the salt, DON'T. Salt is important to help counteract the rising of the yeast. Also don't over add it. Or, do what you want, but don't say you weren't warned.) Add one tablespoon of the fresh chopped rosemary, you can use a teaspoon of dry if you don't have fresh. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or in a mixer about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Add more flour if necessary.
Oil a bowl, put dough in it and cover with a towel. Let dough rise in a warm place for one hour until doubled.

Punch down dough and divide in half.
Let dough rest about 5 minutes.
Spray baking pan or cookie sheet with cooking spray.
Shape the dough into 2 small rounded oval loaves.
Sprinkle remaining 1 Tablespoon of rosemary over the loaves and press lightly into the surface.
Let loaves rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375° F.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned.
Carefully remove from oven, brush with remaining butter and cool on a rack.Health note: If you like to amp it up a little try adding a little wheat flour and some wheat gluten to help it rise, about a Tablespoon per cup. (Wheat gluten is flour that helps hold the structure and is definitely needed for rising, I'll tell ya more of what I know later.) Also, you can try white wheat. We love it, not quite as nutritious but makes for a light, yet wheaty bread?