Artisan Bread

I am definitely not a bread making expert, but Sara whipped up this delicious bread for us and it was divine. I loved the salt on the crunchy crust, especially in contrast to the soft, fluffy inside. Plus, it was so pretty! I am determined to master this recipe for myself!

Recipe from Sara...
Ingredients and Directions:
3 cups warm water (should feel comfortably warm, not hot, to your finger)
1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher or coarse salt
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast (we use Fleishmann's active dry yeast)
Mix it together.

6 1/2 cups flour
We usually add 4 cups of flour, mix it in (it should be quite wet
still), then add the remaining 2 1/2 cups. You can experiment with any
proportion of white to whole wheat. (I think Sara used half of each on our loaves)

When you finish adding and mixing the flour it tends to be very
sticky. Once you extricate your mixing spoon from the dough, cover it
with a towel and let the dough rise for 2 hours or so.

Once the dough has risen we sprinkle some flour on top of it, add some
to our hands, and separate the dough into four loaves. They can all be
cooked at once, or placed in a container in the fridge for up to 2
weeks. Leave the lid on loosely for the first 12 hours or so to let
the dough finish expanding. Our dough usually gets used in a few days.

For those being cooked immediately, we shape each loaf into whatever
shape, let it rise for 40 minutes on a greased pan or nonstick mat, slash the top with a sharp knife (optional, but recommended), and place in oven preheated to 450
degrees (every oven's different - 425 works well for us).

One note on the oven - we have a roasting basin below the bread pan on
a lower rack that we add a cup of hot water to just after adding the
loaf/loaves to the oven. This steams the bread and tends to give a
nice crisp crust. Bake the bread for 20-30 minutes. Done.