This Recipe has changed my life!

It makes great pizza dough too!

Makes 4-1 pound loafs

3 cups water, lukewarm
1.5 T yeast
1.5 T sea salt
6.5 cups flour

Mixing and Storing the Dough:

1. Heat the water to just warmer than body temp (about 100 degrees F)

2. Add yeast and salt to water in a resealable lidded container (lift a corner, never seal to be airtight!) Don't worry about getting it all to dissolve.

3. Mix in flour (measure correctly, no packing it down in measuring cup). Mix with spoon. If it gets too hard, use wet hands. Do not knead the dough! Dough should be "loose" enough to conform to the shape of the container. (wheat flour does not do so well... it is really solid)

4. Leave out for min 2 hours, max 5 hours. Then put in the fridge (at least 3 hours before using). This can hang out in your fridge for up to 2 weeks. It taste better second day! The longest one has lasted in our home is about 1.5 weeks. It has tasted good every time.

On Baking day:
5. Prepare a pizza peal (or the back of a cookie sheet) by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal. Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, then cut off about a grapefruit size piece. Make it round-ish.

6. Place ball on the pizza peal. Let it rest, uncovered for 40 minutes.

7. Twenty minutes before baking, put baking stone on top rack and cookie sheet or broiler pan on bottom rack. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.

8. Dust top of loaf with flour and slash a 1/4 inch deep scallop or tic tac toe pattern into the top.

9. This is the tricky part! "With a forward jerking motion of the wrist" slide the loaf off the pizza peel onto the hot baking stone." Pour about a cup of water (it says hot but I've used cold or room temp) into the pan below. Close oven quickly to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes. (check after 20, look for brown and firm crust).



If you are making pizza, take the dough out, roll it out on pizza peel (with cornmeal), top, and bake on hot stone at 500 for about 8 minutes. So fast and easy!