Artisan Bread

From Well Tell Me

So.............here is the Artisan bread we have been using.
In a bowl, bucket,whatever:
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
6 1/2 cups flour (all purpose is fine but you can play with this and add fresh ground and even herbs etc.)
3 cups warm water
You stir this together until it is all moist and there are no dry clumps.
Let it sit on the counter for 2 hours. It is really moist!
To form----------sprinkle with flour and take a piece of dough the size of a grapefruit----------sprinkle your hands and the dough with flour to prevent sticking. (The hardest thing about this is that I wanted to work the flour into the dough so it wouldn't be sticky. You really don't need to, just sprinkle flour on and form the dough into a round bun shape.)
Put your dough on a cookie sheet or pizza peel that is liberally coated with course corn meal or course flour. Let it raise for 40 minutes. Sprinkle the loaf with a light dusting of flour and slash a couple of times.
About 20 minutes into the raising time pre heat your oven to 450 degrees. If you use a baking stone it should be put in the oven to pre-heat. Also place a pan in the over to hold water.
After the 40 minutes slide the dough unto the heated stone in the oven and put 2 cups of water into the pan that is in the over. This steams the bread and causes a hard crust. Bake about 30 minutes. I guarentee the whole loaf will be gone in no time at all!
This recipe make 4 med. round loaves. The rest of the dough can be put in the fridge for up to 10 days. When you want fresh bread take out a chunk, form and let raise 40-90 minutes (because the dough is cold) and bake like above. HTH Sorry this is so long.