I'm like a regular old Betty Crocker.

First pasta and now bread!  I jumped on this bread baking bandwagon recently and I'm officially converted.  Please pray for the success of my diet in the midst of all of this rising dough.  Seriously.  The dough...it just keeps rising.  And rising.  And rising.  Picture some sort of Willy Wonka scene where the rooms gets overtaken by bread dough.

The crazy comes from this book.  Which I'll be buying on Amazon later this morning.  The recipe itself was really easy and I'm looking forward to having a little variety in choices of bread.  Hopefully something with whole wheat that will also be a little more waistline friendly.

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes

• 1 1/2 T yeast
• 1 1/2 T kosher salt
• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 6 1/2 cups all purpose flour

In a large bowl, mix the yeast and salt with the water.  Add in the flour and stir until the flour is no longer dry.  Let is sit, loosely covered, for 2-5 hours at room temperature.  Cover with an airtight lid and move to the fridge.  The dough can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

When you're ready to bake the bread, use a LOT of flour on your hands before pulling off the dough.  Pull off about a grapefruit sized amount, cutting it with a serrated knife.  Roll the dough around until you have a smooth top, pulling it creating a rougher bottom.  Place the dough on a pizza slide (or a flat cookie sheet - you just need to be able to slide it onto the pizza stone) dusted with cornmeal.  Let it rise for 40 minutes before baking.

Set the oven at 450.  Place a roasting pan on the bottom rack and your pizza stone on the middle rack while the oven preheats.  When you're ready to bake the bread, use a serrated knife to cut slash marks on top.  This will keep the bread from breaking (I think that's the right term) while it bakes.  Slide the dough onto the pizza stone and add 1 cup of water to the roasting pan.  Close the oven to trap the steam and let it bake for about 30 minutes.

I thought I would get about 4-5 loaves of bread out of the recipe, but since it keeps rising I may get 8!  I left some dough at my mom's house (about 2 loaves worth) and brought home what I thought would make 2 more loaves.  However, by Saturday I could have 10.