Candela's Rustic Bread

Ingredients:

4 cups of flour (all-purpose flour, but you can do half and half with wheat or other flours)

2 teaspoons of salt

2 tablespoons of sugar or honey

2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast

1 3/4 cups of warm water

*1 tablespoon wheat germ (you can add more)

*1 tablespoon flax seed meal (you can add more)

*1 tablespoon lecithin (helps the bread stay moist and elastic for longer)

*optional ingredients

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients in kitchen aid for about 8 min at level 2 speed. Then oil the same bowl and move the dough around so it's all well coated and stays moist.

Let it rise for about an hour in a warm place free of draft.

Either shape into one big, round, free form bread loaf, or divide dough into two smaller loaves. Let rise for another hour or hour and a half (until double).

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 375, and continue baking for an additional 10 minutes (longer, if necessary). Using a spray bottle, spray clean water onto bread just before putting it into the oven, and once every three minutes at the beginning of the baking period. This helps the loaves stay tall for longer and develops and nice crust.

Remove from oven and pans, and enjoy!

Notes:

This recipe got me started on flax seed meal and wheat germ. Now I'm trying to add them to everything I bake! Thanks, Candela. :) I love the idea of spraying the bread with water, it makes the crust awesome! Because this is such a long bread recipe, I use rapid rise yeast, and follow the instructions on the jar, heating my water to 120 degrees and letting the dough rest for 10 minutes to replace the first rise.

Start to finish:

About 3 hours

Source:

Candela Rice