Easy Homemade Italian Bread

Easy Homemade Italian Bread.

Ingredients

• 5 teaspoons of yeast
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• ½ cup very hot water (not boiling) from tap
• 8+ cups of bread flour
• 2 tablespoons of Sugar
• 1 tablespoon of Salt
• 2 cups hot water
• 1 stick of melted butter
• ¼ cup of EVOO

Directions/Steps

1. In a small bowl, stir together 1/2 of the water, the yeast and sugar and set aside until it foams.
2. In the meantime in a Kitchen Aid mixer with paddle mix the following: 4 cups of bread flour, sugar, salt, hot water, melted butter and the EVOO. Start mixer.
3. Add yeast when foamed.
4. Let mixer run for three (3) minutes on low. Then shut off mixer
5. Add four (4) more cups of flour. Mix in with a couple of quick stirs with a spatuula.
6. Put on dough hook and mix for five (5) minutes. Stop and stir with spatula if not mixing properly.
7. Add more flour or water as needed until a ball forms.
8. Take out dough and hand kneed for about a minute.
9. Oil a bowl with EVOO and put dough ball into it. Then flip it over to cover dough ball completely in oil.
10. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise till double. Then punch down the middle and fold over a couple of times and let rise again.
11. After second rise take out and cut into four (4) equal pieces. Fold each piece in half and then again in half. Repeat this process until about a foot long. Pinch folds and then hand roll out to desired length.
12. Make loaves and brush with beaten egg whites.
13. Put bread in preheated oven on 450 degrees for 10 minutes.
14. Then turn down oven to 350 and cook another 30-40 minutes.
15. Do not take out to early. It may look brown but to get a crunchy outside you need to cook it longer (not burn it.)
16. Let bread rest.
17. What I do is cook bread early in day. Then 30 minutes  before dinner is ready I place bread on a cookie sheet and spray it with water (or wipe with wet hands) the loaves. Place bread in pre heated (350) oven and let warm up a for 15-20 minutes. This makes the bread extra crunchy and crusty on the outside, but beautiful and soft in the middle.