Italian Bread

Directions

• Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup warm (not hot) water
• Place the flour and salt in a large bowl.
• Make a “well” in the flour.
• Pour the yeast mixture and olive oil into the well.
• With your hands, start mixing the flour into the wet ingredients.
• Slowly add the remaining water into the flour, mixing until well incorporated.
• Clean off your hands and dust with flour.
• Remove the dough from the bowl and split in half
• Dust 2 cereal size bowls with a dab of flour and place each hunk of dough in a separate bowl.
• 10. Dust the dough with flour and cover with plastic wrap .
• 11. Let the dough rest for about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.
• 12. When doubled, dust your hands with flour and remove the dough from the bowl and place on a floured board.
• 13. Roll the dough in the shape of a log, about 3 inches thick and place it on a floured board.
• 14. Cover the loaves with a towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
• 15. While the loaves are resting, preheat the oven to 410 degrees (put your pizza stone in the oven at this time to heat it up).
• 16. Now that the loaves have rested, cut 4 or 5 very thin diagonal slits in each loaf, being careful not to cut too deep.
• 17. Generously brush the beaten egg on the top and sides of each loaf.
• 18. Sprinkle corn meal or semolina flour onto the hot pizza stone and slide loaves onto the stone.
• To make this easier, I sprinkle a wooden pizza paddle with corn meal, place the raw loaves on top. Then they slide easily onto the hot pizza stone).
• 19. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
• 20. Remove from oven and serve.