Roasted Garlic Bread

I wanted to try a roasted garlic bread, because the ones they have at Wegmans are so addictive. I selected a basic sourdough bread recipe that I got from a friend, which I had made once before as a plain sourdough. I'm not sure where it comes from, he only provided me with a copy of the recipe page. He also gave me a sourdough source which he has been festering for a few years. The sourdough mother is fed by adding equal parts of milk and flour, which was something new to me. It lives in the refrigerator, and when I want to use it, I take it out to let it get to room temperature, then add flour and milk. It percolates, and then I start proofing the yeast and making the dough.

In any case, this variation was the roasted garlic and an all bread-flour version of the dough. The recipe makes two loaves, so I roasted a whole head of garlic. Separate the head into cloves, but don't peel them. Put them on a piece of aluminum foil, toss with a tablespoon of olive oil, then wrap it up and leave it in the toaster oven at 325 degrees for an hour. Your garlic will be lovely and brown! When it's cool enough to handle, you can spread it out into your bread dough, the papers separate very easily from the roasted garlic. Or just eat it on crackers, it is that delicious. Here's a picture of the roasted cloves after removing the paper.


I folded the cloves into the dough after the first rising (which is done in the mixer bowl for this reason), at which time more flour is added. So the cloves were totally incorporated.

I'm not quite sure if I added too much flour, or the garlic thickened the bread, but the result was actually a fairly dense bread, a bit different from the last time I tried this recipe. I also forgot to check my pan of water through the baking, and the pan of water which is used to humidify the oven baked dry, so I think I lost some of the moist oven action which causes the characteristic sourdough crust. Here's a picture of the final product, the near loaf did not appear to have the same texture crust as the far loaf, even though I baked them at the same time.

In any case, the house smelled heavenly garlicy while the bread baked. I wanted to chew my arm off, I was starving. I loved how the garlic made each slice smell (and turned the interior of the bread a slightly golden color). I thought I should have used another head of garlic, but my husband thought the bread was overpowering and "stinky" in his lunch bag.

So.... mixed results, but definitely interesting. I think I might have changed too many variables at once, with adding the garlic AND substituting bread flour for all-purpose. I also did convection bake instead of regular, so there's three things I have to work on for next time!