Rustic Italian Bread
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This bread goes great with a wide variety of dishes such as Cajun and BBQ in addition to Italian. It also makes great garlic bread and bruschetta. My boys would eat the whole loaf before dinner if I let them. This recipe makes two loaves.
NOTE: This recipe calls for splashing water onto the bottom of the oven to make steam which develops a nice crust on the bread. I did this for years and it works well. BUT, we got a new oven and the first time I made bread I pitted the enamel in the bottom of the oven and my dear wife was not happy (neither was I!). So if you want some steam in the oven boil some water in a tea kettle, pour it into a shallow bowl or sheet pan and slide it on to the bottom rack in your oven.
Rustic Italian Bread
Category
Breads
Persons
24
Prep Time
1 hour, 45 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Total Time
2 hours, 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 cups of warm water
- 1 Tbls salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 6 cups of all-purpose flour
- 4 ½ tsp instant dry yeast
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170, and then shut off and open door.
- Put 2 cups of warm water with the salt and sugar in a large bowl.
- Blend in 3 cups of sifted flour
- Add yeast to flour water mixture and mix well.
- Add about 1 half of the remaining flour and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
- Mix in a little more flour to make a soft dough
- Throw the dough on a floured surface and let it sit for around 10 minutes.
- To knead the dough use the heels of your hands and gently push the dough away from you.
- Fold the dough and repeat continuously for about 5 to 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.
- Sprinkle a very little amount of flour on the dough if it becomes too sticky to handle.
- Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place in a large greased bowl. Just dab some olive or vegetable oil on a paper towel and grease the entire bowl all away to the top.
- Turn the dough over to coat with oil.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place (the oven) for around 1 hour until dough has doubled.
- Punch down the dough and knead on a lightly floured surface for about 2 minutes.
- Cut into two equal balls and cover for another 10 minutes.
- Shape the balls into loaves and place on a greased baking sheet.
- Cover loaves loosely with a towel and set aside in a warm place until doubled.
- Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees.
- To get the bread nice and crusty, splash some water in the bottom of the oven – or, boil water in a kettle, pour the boiling water into a shallow dish, and slide that on to the bottom rack of your oven.
- Bake the bread for 10 minutes and reduce the heat to 400 degrees.
- Bake 20 to 30 minutes total or until golden brown.