Artesan Bread

South Beach diet people...don't read on.  This post is all about carbs.

Carbs as in bread.

I've been reading this web site Artesan Bread in 5 Minutes for quite awhile.  Finally, I made myself a batch of their bread.  Since that first batch, The Husband asks me to make a loaf of bread almost daily.  It is absolutely delicious!

Making homemade bread has this stigma that it is hard to do.  Not this recipe.  Let me show you how easy it is.

2 T. of yeast (All I had was bread machine yeast and by golly, it works)

Added to 2 T of kosher salt
Pour in 3 cups of lukewarm water

 6 1/2 cups of flour

Stir well.  Make sure the bowl is big enough to handle raising dough.

Let the dough sit on the counter, loosely covered for 2 hours.  After this time you could bake a loaf.

After the two hours, into the refrigerator it goes.  Make sure the cover isn't tight as gases from the bread need to escape.

When it is time to bake, pull off about a grapefruit-size amount of the dough.  Gently pull it into a ball (there is a great video on the web site to demonstrate this).  There is no kneading at all in this recipe.

Place dough on a corn-meal covered board and let raise 40 minutes.

Place a baking stone in the oven before preheating the over.  The stone needs to be hot before placing the bread dough on it.

Before baking, rub a little flour on the top of the dough.  Make 4-5 slices in the top.

Slide the dough onto the hot baking stone.
On a shelf under the baking stone, place a cake pan and pour in 1 cup cold water.  Steam from that water causes a crunchy crust!

Bake for 30 minutes at 450 degrees.

 We can hardly wait for the bread to cool before we are cutting into it.

This recipe makes approximately 4 loaves of bread.  The dough can stay in the refrigerator up to two weeks.

Inexpensive, not-hard-to-make bread that tastes delicious.

Amazing!