Some friends came over yesterday for lunch.  And, on the menu was pesto on whole wheat pasta and freshly made bread.  I made the pesto and my friend was to help me make this super easy bread.

Seriously, after my friend taught me how to make this bread, I decided that I will no longer be purchasing crusty bread or bread dough from the store deli.  It is super easy and also very good!

Thanks Cornelia for the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 6.5 cups of unbleached bread flour or all purpose flour
• 3 cups of luke warm water
• 1.5 tablespoons of yeast
• 1.5 tablespoons of salt

Note: for a healthier bread, you can use whole wheat flour or half whole wheat and half unbleached bread/all purpose flour.

Note:  You can also add garlic, herbs, or nuts (sesame seeds, ground flax seeds, sunflower seeds, etc.) to your dough…

Directions:

1. Pour flour in a large bowl.
2. In another bowl, mix water, yeast, and salt together until there are no lumps.
3. Mix the water, yeast, and salt mixture in with the flour.
4. Make sure there are no lumps.
5. Place a towel or napkin over the bowl and let it sit out for 2 hours (I just kept mine covered in the microwave).
6. Preheat oven to 450 degrees (with pizza stone in it).
7. Place a pan under the pizza stone with a bit of water (for a little bit of steam).
8. After the dough has been sitting for 2 hours, form 2 balls with it and sprinkle a little flour over it.
9. Slice the top of the dough a couple of times with a sharp knife.
10. Sprinkle corn meal or flour on pizza stone and place the dough balls on it.
11. Bake for 30 minutes.
12. Remove from pizza stone.
13. Enjoy!

Note: You don’t have to use all of the dough you make.  You can can cut up the dough, cover up what you will not be using, and store in the fridge.

Today, I just cut the ingredients in half….

flour in the bowl…..

yeast and salt in the water…..

mix….

store in the microwave for 2 hours….

slice the top of the dough…..

don’t forget…water under the pizza stone….

This is the pizza stone I use….click on it for more info: