Pan Rustico

3 cups warm water
1 1/2 Table spoon fresh yeast
1 table spoon salt
6  1/2 cup flour

In a large bowl with a lid, if you have one, sprinkle yeast on warm water and whisk till dissolved. Add salt, stir. I fork my flour before I measure (basically just fluff your flour with a fork before measuring), dump all flour in. Stir with wooden, trust me it's easier, till all flour is incorporate. Put on lid or tightly cover with plastic wrap. The key to this bread   Is keeping it moist. Let rise 1 hour or so . Punch down , place in frig till the next day or if you make it in the morning you can cook later in the day.( refrigeration is really important)

Pre heat oven 400-425 degrees, depending on your oven.. You will know the right temp after the first loaf. This will be sticky so don't be afraid of  flouring your hands. Take out a gob about the size of a grapefruit, this recipe makes four loaves the size you saw in the picture.  Make it into a nice round loaf.Put your gob on an inverted cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper on it. I divide  the rest of my batch in 3 plastic bags, just store in frig up to a week. Place a METAL pie pan on bottom shelf of oven Set timer for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes,Cut 3 slits on bread top, I use kitchen shears, way easier. Place in oven, pour 1 cup of water in pie pan. Close door quickly, cook 30 minutes. Sounds like a lot of steps but it's really easy and so good. You must wait till this bread is completely cool before eating , other wise it will be doughy! This makes it crunchy on the out side and moist and tender on the inside.  Make the best pizza dough ever, just cook 10 minutes then cover with topping and cook till golden and done.

Syndy's Commentary:

I made this a couple of times and there is a learning curve.  I had to heat my oven to 450 to get the crust brown enough, I also had to make 2 loaves out of the batch because making 4 was too small for our family.  All in all a great recipe I will be making this A LOT!!

I also have a picture of my 2nd batch they look a lot better I'll download as soon as I hook to my computer.