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How to make the best clay flower pot herb bread recipe

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I first discovered these flower pot bread loaves when having lunch with a friend at Terrain Cafe. I thought it was such a cute and clever idea that I’ve been making them ever since.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 6 tablespoons salted butter
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 21/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (exactly one packet)
  • 2 eggs
  • 31/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • A little extra butter to grease the flower pots

Instructions

  1. Melt butter and add milk. Allow the milk and butter to cool slightly
  2. Sprinkle yeast on top and gently stir it into the butter and milk and let sit for 10 minutes
  3. Combine the flour and salt
  4. In a small bowl, mix the eggs
  5. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix eggs, yeast, milk, and butter with the whisk attachment until combined. Add half of the flour and beat until combined. Then add the other half of the flour and beat again until combined. I drape a clean damp kitchen towel over the mixer to avoid the flour dust escaping into the air.
  6. Switch to the dough hook attachment and knead the dough on medium speed for ten minutes. Coat a bowl with a little olive oil, add the dough, and coat the top with oil. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and set it in a warm place for at least 2 – 1/2 hours. Unless it’s mid-summer and warm in the house, I generally turn the oven on and place the bowl on top of the oven.
  7. Once the dough has risen, place the dough on a floured work surface and pound the dough down in a large circle
  8. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces and form them into a ball
  9. Place balls of dough into the prepared flour pots. Place pots on a cookie sheet, cover with a damp cloth, and let them rise for another 1 1/2 hours.
  10. Once they are ready to be baked, the dough is just about to the top of the baking pot rim, but still inside the pot. Put flower pots on a baking sheet and bake for 18 minutes at 350º
  11. Remove from oven and allow to cool lightly. Then holding each pot with a kitchen towel, take a knife and run it along the inside to release the bread. You may have to push the dough through the drainage hole at the bottom if it appears stuck. Remove to a cooling rack for a few minutes. Then put each back into the flower pot and serve.

Notes

**Prepare your terra cotta pots by washing them and then coating the inside and outside with canola oil. Place them on a baking pan and bake in a 250º oven for 2 1/2 hours. Repeat this twice the first time you are using them to bake bread.