Homemade Italian Bread

I love how my crusty Italian bread turned out. This time around I decided to try more of a loaf style Italian bread. Overall, a great recipe – that I will make again!

There were a few changes to the recipe this time around as well. I activated the yeast packet in 1 cup warm water. Then in my stand mixer, I added 3 cups bread flour, 2 tsp. sugar and 1 tsp. salt until mixed together. After about 10 minutes, I added the water yeast mixture and slowly mixed it all together with the hook attachment. I slowly added water to make sure it combined to a moist, but not too wet dough. Add more flour if it gets too wet.

Next, I placed the dough on a flour surface to gently roll into ball (not over kneading). I placed is it a bowl (lined with some EVOO) and covered with plastic wrap and allowed it to rest and rise for 1 hour. After 1 hour, I placed the dough on the flour surface again gently rolling it. I then added it back to the bowl covering with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 more minutes.  During this time, I had the oven preheating to 375 with my pizza stone inside. I formed the dough into an elongated oval loaf with a few cuts in the top and placed it on parchment paper on my pizza stone. I baked it for about 30 or so minutes. You want it to be a nice golden-brown color and sound hollow when you hit the bottom.

It turned out delicious and perfectly paired with pasta (homemade recipe coming soon). My only complaint was not as crusty as the homemade batch baked inside the Dutch oven pot. However, this does make good sandwich bread! Stay tuned for more bread recipes because this one was fun! Lol

Live to Eat,
Tiv