School’s back today, which means it’s time to find things to do in the garden so that I don’t notice how quiet it is at home… a good time to start taking cuttings of herbs and tender annuals. Free plants are always very welcome around here, seeds are saved, cuttings taken and favourite plants divided to make more. This year I’m wanting to take a lot of lavender cuttings to replace old plants and those lost during the last few cold, wet winters. Plenty of rosemary cuttings too, as many as I can get. I’ve been planning to grow a rosemary hedge after seeing one years ago at a lavender farm we visited. I’m not sure yet where I’ll put it, but I am going to need lots of plants, so growing them myself will be the cheapest way to do it.
Stripping the leaves from lavender and rosemary cuttings is always a nice job to do – fantastic scent as you’re working. But I don’t like to waste the fresh rosemary leaves and this year I’ve managed to combine taking cuttings with bread making. Not a bad combination really – gardening and baking.
The Real Bread Campaign has designated this month as ‘Sourdough September’ – a whole month to celebrate the wonderfully flavoured breads produced using a sourdough starter. Way back in January I mixed up some organic rye flour and water and let nature take its course… and it did, just a few weeks later I was baking my first sourdough loaf. To be honest, the loaf wasn’t all I was hoping for – missing in both the flavour and texture I expected from a really good sourdough. But I kept on trying and after a while have managed to produce some really tasty, crusty, chewy loaves – not always perfect, but we’re getting there. This rosemary loaf though has a fabulous flavour and we’ve been eating it with soups, salads and toasted for breakfast. It’s really easy to make… but does take a bit of time, so remember to start mixing and kneading a good few hours before you want to be eating.
Rosemary sourdough
500g strong white bread flour
260g white sourdough starter
260ml water
2 tsp fine sea salt
1 tbsp quite finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
Mix the flour, starter and water in a large bowl until you have a firm, evenly mixed dough, adding a little extra water if needed. Cover the bowl with a damp t towel or some clingwrap and leave to stand for 20 minutes to an hour. After this time, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured board (you shouldn’t need much flour because the dough should be quite firm). Stretch the dough out into a large rectangle and sprinkle the salt evenly over the surface. Fold 1/3 of the dough back onto itself, and then the remaining 1/3 over that. Then put the radio on and start kneading… you’re aiming for a nice smooth and elastic dough, this should take a good 10 minutes or so.
Once the kneading is done, return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave to rise slowly. You can at this stage put the bowl in the fridge and leave the dough to rise overnight… a long, slow rising will allow the dough to develop more flavour. The next morning, take the bowl out of the fridge and leave the dough to warm to room temperature.
When the dough has almost doubled in size, tip it out onto a work surface and stretch it into a large rectangle. Sprinkle the chopped rosemary leaves over the surface of the dough. Fold the dough into thirds so that the rosemary is sandwiched between the layers of dough. Shape the dough into a loaf and place on a greased and lightly floured baking sheet. You could divide the dough into even sized pieces and make bread rolls if you prefer – just remember to adjust the baking time. Cover and leave to rise again until the loaf is about half as big again.
Preheat the oven to 200oC, 400F, gas 6. When the oven is heated, boil the kettle and tip a cup full of boiling water into a tin placed at the bottom of the oven, this will help to get a nice crusty crust to the loaf. Bake the loaf for 15 minutes, then turn the tray around to get a good, even bake. Bake for a further 15 minutes – or until the base of the loaf has a good hollow ring when you tap it. Cool on a wire rack.
The Garden Deli 
Rosemary bread sounds delicious and certainly no waste from your cuttings. I tried to do rosemary cuttings last yr for exactly the same reason as yours. They did really well until earlier this yr when they started to go mouldy on me and die back. I’d kept them under cover over the winter so am presuming the air wasn’t circulating properly around the plants? May I ask, where will you keep your cuttings?
I keep cuttings in the greenhouse too – but then fuss over them and worry that they’re not getting enough water/being overwatered/too hot/too cold… My approach is to take a lot more cuttings than I really want in the hope that at least some will root and survive!
What a lovely job to be doing in this fine weather. Using up your Rosemary to make a delicious looking sourdough is a brilliant idea. It is one of my favourite herbs to use in cooking.
Gardening with herbs does have a lot of benefits – they smell good (even weeding around them can be nice), and you can eat them.
Good reminder for me to get another sourdough starter going. The last one died when we moved house.
Oh no, what a shame. Hope you get another starter going and ready to make bread soon!
Thanks for the reminder – I want to root some black currant cuttings! Won’t smell nearly as good as your rosemary, but free plants are free plants! 🙂
Love the bread – coming home from school to smell that in the oven would be a real treat!
Free plants are always good – well, maybe not weeds…
Great idea! I prehaps did my cuttings a little too early this year..
Just made a kind of baked brushetta with lots of tomato, rosemary and basil. If you have any more rosemary left over I really recommend this!
There is rosemary left over (you can never have too much) – so we’ll try your bruschetta idea soon, thanks!
I love the idea of a rosemary hedge and also really like the fact that you’re combining taking cuttings with bread making, just the sort of thing I’d end up doing. I don’t think I would end up with such a great crust and lovely looking loaf as that though – it looks wonderful. Sounds as if you’ve made excellent use of the first day of school term!
The first day back after having them home for six weeks is always hard… best to keep busy!
Rosemary goes so fabulously in any bread. This sounds amazing. I wish I had some butter to smear on this. YUM! 🙂
You’re right – rosemary is good in just about any bread!
Mmmm, the smell of freshly baked bread AND rosemary must be heaven! I intend to try some more bread recipes this winter as I have had limited success so far, but you have inspired me to try taking some rosemary cuttings. My plant is just too big to bring in for winter now and doesn’t stand a chance outside here.
Rosemary is usually ok with cold winters – it’s cold and wet at the same time that it doesn’t like. Could you cover your plant to protect it through the cold weather?
It’s in a pot, as it wouldn’t survive the permafrost in the ground here… if I had somewhere near the house it might get through but a friend lost hers a couple of years ago and it was wrapped up on a south-facing house wall. 😦 I have taken some cuttings though and will wrap the pot up and hope for the best!
Good luck!
I won’t be taking any more rosemary cuttings this year – I already have four bushes and the rate I’m going I won’t have room for any other plants – they do grow pretty big don’t they. The bread looks scrumptious .
Four big rosemary bushes is certainly a lot of rosemary. I’m never confident that the rosemary in the garden will make it through the winter here – I’ve lost a few plants to the wet, cold weather, so cuttings are an insurance policy as well as a way of increasing numbers.
I love rosemary, I never can resist running it through my fingers when I see it. Your bread looks absolutely delicious. I did try sourdough a while back but it was like a brick unfortunately. I must try it again.
The smell of rosemary is supposed to improve memory, as well as being a great scent.
I need to take some Rosemary cuttings too, I like your idea of a hedge very much. Your bread looks amazing, I’m never that successful with sour dough, I’m very impressed.
There’s a lot of trial and error gone into the sourdough loaf – it will be interesting to see if the flavour changes as the starter gets older.
gardening and baking! Best of both worlds 🙂 Your bread sounds most yum x
The perfect combination – just so long as you remember to wash your hands between the gardening and the baking!