Italian Bread

Last night, I made a pasta dish and I knew I needed some great bread to go with it. We have been enjoying our homemade wheat bread every day and somehow buying store bread didn't seem good enough. So, I decided to continue to conquer my fear of baking bread and tackle an Italian bread from scratch. It took a bit longer to make then the sandwich bread, but it was good. I even made some garlic butter to go along with it. I highly recommend it to anyone.

The finished bread

Bread:
 1 3/4 cup warm water (105-115)
2 tbs honey
2 packs active yeast
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbs salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp crushed rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
8 cups flour

And to brush on the bread later:
3 tbs butter, melted
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp crushed rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1 clove garlic

1. Stir warm water, honey and yeast. Let stand 10 min.

2. Stir in eggs, oil, salt, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp rosemary, 1 tsp thyme and minced garlic.

3. Stir in as much flour as you can then knead the rest in on a lightly floured surface. Shape dough into a ball and let it rise in a lightly greased bowl. (cover and place in in cool oven for about 1-1.5 hours or until double in size)

4. Punch dough down and place on floured surface. Divide into 3 equal parts then divide again into 3 parts (9 parts total) Roll into about 24 inch ropes and braid 3 together. Shape the braid into a spiral loaf (like in the photo) repeat with other ropes for 3 loaves total.

5. Place loaves on lightly greased baking sheet an let rise until double in size (30 min)

6. Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter and mix with 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp crushed rosemary, 1 tsp dried thyme and 1 clove garlic. Brush on loaves.

7. Bake for 30-35 min until loaves sound hollow. Cool on wire rack.

P.S. For the whipped garlic butter, I put 2 sticks of room temperature butter in a blender with 2 cloves minced garlic and 6 tablespoons vegetable oil (added a few tbs at a time). Blend and scrape into a container with a  lid...and put in the fridge until ready to serve.