Put all ingredients in bowl of stand mixer. Mix on low only until ingredients are combined.

Place dough in plastic container (plastic bowl/Tupperware). Cover with lid but “pop” so slightly open. Let stand until dough doubles in size, ~2 hours.

You can put the dough in the refrigerator after it rises until you are ready to bake.

Preheat oven to 450°F. Put an empty pan that can hold 2-3 cups of water on the bottom rack.

If you do not have a pizza stone, you can use loaf forms (I use “French white” one and a Le Creuset one) lined with parchment paper.

The recipe says it makes 5 1-lb loaves. I usually make 2 loaves out of this recipe... depends on the size you want. I like to bake both at same time, but you can keep dough in fridge and just bake what you want, when you want it.

If you have a stone, you hand form the bread according to the size and shape you desire and place on parchment paper on the stone. When you form the dough, you want to draw the top of the dough to the bottom (forming a cloak)... do not handle the dough excessively.

I let the bread “sit” until the oven is ready.... the recipe says let sit 40-90 minutes.

Take a knife or scissors and make marks in the loaf as desired. (round bread = usually a large x, loaf = one down the middle or several marks at 45 degrees)

Put bread in oven. Add 2 c water to the pan.

Bake 25-35 min. May want to take bread off of parchment paper or out of loaf form and bake for last 2-5 minutes to crisp up the sides that were touching the parchment paper.