5-Minute Artisan Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 cups hot water
• 1 1/2 TBS instant dry yeast
• 1 1/2 TBS Kosher salt
• 6 1/2 cups unbleached flour

Instructions to make dough:

• Mix all ingredients in a 5 qt. ice cream bucket until moistened (3-5 minutes). Let it rest on the counter loosely covered for at least 2 hours while getting a good rise.
• After 2 hours, place bucket of dough in the refrigerator. If using a glass container do not seal tightly, otherwise it is okay to do so after 48 hours.
• You may use the dough immediately or anytime after the 2 hour rise.

Instructions to make French bread:

• Lightly grease a cookie sheet where the dough will be (if the cookie sheet has sides, use the underside).
• Reach in to the bucket of dough and grab desired amount of dough. If necessary, lightly dust with flour to 'cloak' the dough (not to knead in but to make it more manageable); though I have never found that necessary. Shape the dough as desired and place on greased cookie sheet. Do not knead the dough or handle it a lot.

• After 20 minutes, preheat oven to 450° with a baking stone in the oven and a broiler pan on a rack beneath. Set timer for another 20 minutes.
• When timer goes off, gently score the top of the bread a few times with a bread knife. Next, place the cookie sheet on top of the stone in the oven and pour one cup water into the broiler pan. Bake for 30 minutes. After 15 minutes of baking, you can slide the bread off of the cookie sheet onto the stone for the remainder of the time.
• Cool completely on a rack before cutting (if you can wait!). Store cut-side down on a wooden cutting board or in a paper sack (plastic will make the crust soft).

Instructions for pizza crust:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Sprinkle pizza stone liberally with cornmeal. Reach into bucket and grab out the desired amount of dough. Place on stone and spread out to shape. Top as desired. Just for fun, we've been substituting Italian diced tomatoes (drained) for the pizza sauce! Very yummy!
• Bake for about 15 minutes.