Our Daily Bread - in 5 minutes

My sister in law, Kelsee, is the kind of sister-in-law that most people dream about but never get...sweet, kind, generous, cheerful, beautiful, stylish, smart, talented, successful...thank you Andrew for marrying her! All of us are so happy that we get to benefit from having her in our family. At one family gathering, Kelsee made this most delicious bread and I begged her for the recipe which she cheerfully shared with me (please reference above list as to the reason she "cheerfully shared")

  So, after many requests, I too am going to cheerfully share

the recipe for bread that has four ingredients (yes, you read correctly, four) and takes 5 minutes a day. 

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1⁄2 tbsp granulated yeast (1 1⁄2 packets)
1 1⁄2 tbsp coarse kosher or sea salt
6 1⁄2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour

1. Heat the water to lukewarm
2.  Add the yeast and salt to the water. Let the yeast dissolve for about 5 minutes.
3. Mix in the flour (I use my Candy-Apple-Red Kitchen Aid with my dough attachment,until the dough is uniformly moist.You can hand-mix if you want to, but why in the world would you want to do that?) This step is done in a matter of minutes, and produces a wet dough that should stick to the bowl.
4. Cover the dough with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flatten on top), approximately two hours, depending on temperature of your room. Longer rising times, up to about five hours, will not harm the dough. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and easier to work with than room-temperature dough. You don’t need to monitor doubling or tripling of volume as in traditional recipes.
5. Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, then cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece with a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on four “sides,” rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go, until the bottom is a collection of four bunched ends. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it doesn’t need to be incorporated. The bottom of the loaf will flatten out during resting and baking.
6. Place the ball on a pizza stone or cookie sheet (which is what I use, seeing that I don't own a pizza stone) by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal (or flour if you happen to run out of cornmeal which I usually do) to prevent the loaf from sticking. Let it rest uncovered for about 40 minutes. Depending on the dough’s age, you may see little rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking.
7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on the bottom oven rack.
8. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing, serrated knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1⁄4-inch-deep cross, scallop or tick-tack-toe pattern into the top. (This helps the bread expand during baking.)
9.  Put the bread into the oven and quickly but carefully pour about a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is browned and firm to the touch. With wet dough, there’s little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or “sing,” when initially exposed to room temperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack, for best flavor, texture and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.
10. Refrigerate the remaining dough in a lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next two weeks: You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the two-week period. Cut off and shape loaves as you need them. The dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.

This recipe was adapted from the following website. The actual DETAILED recipe and more information can be found at: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx?page=4#ixzz1ET3v8yK9