This was an excellent bread to follow the colossal failure that was sourdough bread. Mashed potatoes add tenderness and flavor, and fresh rosemary adds, well, flavor. This bread is made with a preferment called a biga, which I mixed, kneaded, and left to rise on the counter while brooding over my terrible sourdough bread. The biga sat in the fridge overnight, and then at room temperature for an hour the next day before being mixed in with the remaining ingredients. I really enjoyed working with fresh rosemary. It had never occurred to me prior to this that you could buy fresh rosemary at the grocery store (I did have to look at three different stores before I found it in stock, but that's another story). My experience using fresh herbs has been limited to cilantro, which I have fresh in my kitchen maybe once a year, and a brief spree with mint when J4 and I discovered mojitos back in our childless studio-apartment-living days. I could not believe how strong the rosemary smelled and tasted. It was just plain fun. Making this bread definitely fixed the idea of a future herb garden in the back of my mind.
We are really enjoying eating this one. The rosemary makes this soft bread very flavorful, and brushing the loaves with olive oil before baking yields a pleasingly tender crust. I'll probably be making it again this weekend so all that lovely leftover rosemary in my fridge doesn't go to waste.
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