Artisan (aka "Man" Bread) Bread

I found a very delightful bread recipe thanks to my former roommate.  It only takes 6 ingredients and is very delicious and very easy to prepare.  This is the original recipe.  I have copied it below so you don't have to scroll for 20 minutes to the recipe at the bottom.  Someone from the comments in the original post suggested doing the final raise on parchment paper.  This makes transferring the dough to the pizza stone (which needs to be pre-heated in the oven) so easy.  Brilliant!  As another added note, I used regular flour and it turned out fine.  If you want a crispy crust, place the broiler pan in the bottom of the oven with 2-3 cups water.  Remember not to burn yourself with the hot steam when you open the oven!

90 MINUTE MAN BREAD

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INGREDIENTS

• 1½ cups of warm water (105-115 degrees)
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2¼ tsp active-dry yeast
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 4 cups bread flour
• 1½ tsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. If your kitchen is not warm, turn your oven to low. This is simply to warm your kitchen up a little bit (since it’s cool where we live).
2. In your mixer bowl add warm water, honey and yeast. Stir a few times until honey dissolves. Once yeast starts foaming (5 minutes or so), add flour, melted coconut oil, and salt. Using dough hook, knead for 10 minutes on low/medium low. Leave your dough ball in the bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise for 30 minutes.
3. After the first rise, lightly flour a surface and scoop your dough ball on it. Knead your lump of dough by hand a few times, until it forms a firm ball. Cover this ball of dough with a towel.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, make sure this is in the oven to warm up. Alternatively, you can use a cast iron skillet while the oven is preheating - as one reader had great luck with! (Note: We have only tested this recipe with a pizza stone.)
5. Let rise for 30 minutes.
6. After the second rise, place dough ball directly on pizza stone, cut two slits on the top of the dough ball and bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. If you are using a loaf or cast iron skillet, the cook time may need to be increased an additional 10-15 minutes. (bread is done when the internal temp is 220 degrees).
7. Let cool and enjoy.

NOTES

*We move this dough from the counter to the pizza stone, but if you don't feel confident in that transition, flour a piece of parchment paper and shape the dough on that for the second rise. Then move the entire paper with the dough to the oven for baking.

ADDITIONAL RECIPE TIPS

If you don’t have bread flour, you can make your own. Add 1 Tbsp vital wheat gluten to 1 cup of all-purpose flour.

If you don’t have or want to use coconut oil, you can use melted butter or olive oil, although the flavor will be slightly different.

If you’re on the hunt for a great pizza stone, we use this super-thick one. It’s over 5 years old, been through hundreds of pizza nights and is still going strong.  Plus it makes your pizza and bread taste pro-artisan (a.k.a. makes you look like you know what you’re doing).