Roasted Garlic Skillet Bread

make your own roasted garlic in just 30 minutes or buy, jarred, in supermarket

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl no smaller than 3 quarts to give dough room to rise.

Add water 1 cup at a time, combining all dry ingredients with first cup of water before adding second cup. Important so take your time to incorporate first cup completely before moving to second.

Add the mashed roasted garlic and, with your hands, incorporate evenly into the dough.

Cover and let rise at room temperature anywhere from 8-12 hours – overnight or morning to evening.

Right before uncovering the risen dough, flour a clean cutting board or counter surface lightly and prepare kitchen scissors with blades dipped in flour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and put a cast iron or enamelware skillet to preheat it for about 15 minutes.

WITH OVEN MITTS, remove the hot pan from the oven, wipe the bottom lightly with olive oil and set it on the stove top.

Turn out the risen dough onto a floured surface. A rubber spatula can help here, and gently – you don’t want to accidentally punch down the rise! – shape it into a ball. Transfer the dough ball from the floured surface to hot pan; a dough scraper is helpful for this.

Use prepared kitchen scissors to cut a cross in the top of your loaf, sprinkle generously with sea salt and bake for 45-50 minutes until the loaf is a beautiful golden brown and the bottom, tapped, makes a slightly hollow sound.

Remove from pan immidiately and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes on a wire rack before cutting. This is important because, with cast iron, the bread will continue to cook if left in the pan.

Serve and enjoy this beautiful bread all on it’s on or with – EVERYTHING!