In The Legacy, Miriam is a fantastic cook. One of her specialties is a rosemary-laced bread that fills the kitchen and courtyard with its scrumptious aroma. For those who want to try baking some, here’s a rosemary honey wheat bread like Miriam’s that works well in a bread machine. It also works if you like to knead the dough by hand.

As we high-altitude bakers all know, you have to alter many recipes because of the lower atmospheric pressure above 3500 feet. Since I live above 6700 feet, standard bread recipes work fine if I strengthen the dough by kneading it well by hand, but bread-machine recipes rise too fast against the low air pressure and then collapse.

So, here’s a rosemary honey wheat bread adapted for low-altitude and high-altitude bread machines. Either will work at any altitude if you knead the dough well by hand. Measurements in parentheses work for me at 6700 feet. The low-altitude amounts are from a cook book. I assume they will work for low-altitude bakers-no guarantee since I haven’t tried them.

Low-altitude quantities listed first, high-altitude quantities in parentheses when different.

For a 1.5 pound loaf (in the order I add to my bread machine)

1 c + 2 tbsp (1 1/8 cup) water
1.5 tsp salt
1/4 c vegetable oil (I use canola)
1/4 c honey (if you put it in the measuring cup you used for oil, it drains fast)
3/4 c white bread flour
(1 tsp gluten flour for high altitude to keep loaf from collapsing during the rise)
3 tbsp wheat bran (optional-I can’t taste any difference with and without this ingredient.)
2 2/3 c whole wheat flour
2.5 tsp (1 3/8 tsp) active dry yeast
1 tbsp dried rosemary

Bake on the light whole-wheat bread setting of your bread machine. If your bread machine doesn’t have a whole-wheat setting, combine ingredients and let sit for 30 minutes or so for the flour to absorb the liquid before starting the mixing process.

If baking in the oven, use either set of measurements and the standard process of rise, punch down, shape, and rise again to form the loaf. Then bake at 375 F for 40 to 55 min until golden brown, as you would a plain whole wheat bread.

If you try this, please let me know if you like Roman-style rosemary bread like Miriam made. She was sure Titus would love it. I’m confident you’ll like it, too.