Artisan Bread

This recipe comes to us from Mother Earth News. It will make about 4 medium sized rounds and the dough will keep in the refrigerator for a week. It is actually better to let the dough stand overnight but I have formed and baked bread just after the three hour raising time.
We have played around and made it with various combinations of flour adjusting the fiber content. Feel free to add more flour if the dough feels too sticky. If you want to experiment with an herb bread add the herbs to the water and yeast so they stir into the dough and become well incorporated.

Recipe:
6-1/2 C flour
3-1/2 C warm water
1-1/2 T each of salt and yeast.
Proof the yeast in the warm water until both it and the salt are dissolved. Stir into the flour, work it into a dough and let rise for 3 hours in a warm place.
Form bread into a round and slash the top with a knife. Let rise another 20 min. while oven preheats to 350 degrees. We cook ours on a clay pizza stone but you can use a cookie sheet. Just preheat it with the oven and sprinkle with corn meal.The hot pan or stone is what makes the base of the bread nice and crusty. Bake for 35 min. and cool for 20 min. before cutting. Depending on your oven cooking temperatures you may need a few more minutes cooking time.
Cover remaining dough and store in fridge.

You can feed this to your loved ones knowing they are eating a whole food just like Grandma used to make; only four ingredients and you can actually pronounce all of the words. Enjoy.