Italian Bread

One of my favorite things is homemade bread , i tend to bake a lot more than the family can eat so i either give away a loaf or save it for Bread Pudding . I use to do all the kneading by hand until i got a Kitchenaid Professional Mixer , saves me a lot of time . But once in a while i still do the kneading by hand just so it helps relieve some tension in my body! And your kitchen should be warm enough, moist and draft-free for the bread to rise, or in the winter months i preheat the oven to 170F and turn it off when warm, so i can set my bread dough in there to rise.
Also don't forget to mist your oven with water every 3 minutes or so for the first 10 minutes so you can get a nice crunchy crust on the bread.

Ingredients:
5-6 cups of sifted unbleached bread flour
1 tablespoon of salt
2 cups of warm water
2 packages or 4 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast
water spray bottle

Pour yeast in a 1/4 cup of warm water and wait till it rises. Meanwhile mix the remaining water , salt and 3 cups of flour , mix with a wooden spoon and let it rest while the yeast rises.

Pour the yeast mixture in bowl with other ingredients and add 2 cups of flour, start mixing it by hand since the dough will be to tough for the spoon, if it feels wet add more flour .

At this point i put the dough in my mixer with a dough hook for about 5 minutes or you can knead it by hand for 10 minutes(push, fold, slap and roll the dough around, over and over).

When the dough feels elastic enough that the skin is not breaking make a ball and put inside an oiled bowl and cover with plastic film. Let it rise for about 1 hour or until it about doubled in size .

Pour the dough on a floured surface and punch it down , make it into a large log and cut in half with a dough cutter or a sharp knife.

Oil 2 loaf pans and put each dough inside each , cover with a clean towel. Let it rise about another hour or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 425F . With a razor blade score each loaf with 3 short cuts. Place loafs in preheated oven,don't slam the door(or you will lose the air that you need) and don't forget to mist the oven with your water spray bottle. Bake it for 10 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350F and bake it for another 25 minutes. Set the bread on a cutting board and let it rest for about 15 minutes if you can....sometimes i slice while it's hot and put a chunk of butter on it, but the bread might fall apart!!!