Bread Starter (Before you can finish anything you have to start it):

Clean off a counter and dust it with flour. Fill a deep pot with water (deep enough so that the starter ball can float), put it on the stove and heat it to lukewarm. (Hot but not too hot to dip a finger into. The idea is to get the yeast started, not to kill it.) Pour a mound of flour about the size of a large fist onto the counter and make a depression in the middle of it. Pour a teaspoon of olive oil, a quarter teaspoon of salt, a half teaspoon of sugar, and a package of dry yeast into the depression. Note: I never measure anything, so the measurements are just best guesses.. Experiment. Pour a little water into the depression then flip some of the flour from the outside of the mound into the center and mix it with the water. Keep adding water and mixing in the flour until you have a goopy ball that holds together on its own. Be sure that the oil, salt, sugar, and yeast have been well mixed with the flour and water. Put the starter ball into the pot of lukewarm water. It will sink. If you want to keep the ball from sticking to the bottom of the pan you can put a wooden spoon into the pan with the ball sitting on it. Make sure the ball is fully submerged and move it around with a spoon occasionally to make sure it isn't stuck to the bottom. When the ball floats to the top the starter is ready.

The Dough:

Dust the counter with flour. Make a good sized depression in the middle of a mound of flour. A five pound bag of flour makes four large loaves. Add a little olive oil and a little salt. Put the starter ball in the center of the depression. Pour water from a cup into the depression. Flip flour from the outside edge of the mound into the center and mix it with the starter ball and the water. Keep adding water and mixing in the dry flour until you have a dough that is not too goopy but not too dry. To knead the dough first flour your hands. Then using the heel of your hand push the dough into the counter. Keep turning and flipping the dough and pushing it into the counter with the heel of your hand until you can stick a finger into the dough and the resulting depression rebounds. As you knead the flour will be picked up off the countertop and the dough may start sticking. When it does dust the countertop with a little more dry flour.

First Rising:

Rub a little olive oil onto the sides of a bowl to keep the dough from sticking. Put the dough into a bowl, or more than one bowl if you’re making several loaves. The bowl has to be large enough that the dough can double in bulk. Rub a little olive oil onto the top surface of the dough to keep it from developing a crust while it's rising. Cover the bowl with a piece of waxed or microwave paper. Let it rise until it has doubled in bulk. This will take a couple of hours approximately. The dough will rise faster when the temperature is higher. To speed up the rising heat an oven to 140°F, turn it off and wait for ten minutes then put the dough in the oven to rise. Don’t let the dough rise too much. The strands of gluten will break and the bread will be flat.

Second Rising:

Once the dough has risen punch it down and enjoy the yeasty smell as the air escapes. Cover the bottom of a baking sheet with corn meal. Form the dough into long cylindrical loaves and lay them on the baking sheet. Cover the loaves with a tent of waxed or microwave paper and let them double in bulk once again.

Baking:

Preheat an oven to 425°F. Use a knife to score lines about a half inch deep into the top of the loaves. This is cosmetic. It makes the bread look cool. Give it your own personal signature. Separate the whites from the yolks of two eggs. Keep the whites and discard or use the yolks for something else. Use a pastry brush to baste the loaves with egg white. (The egg white makes the crust turn brown.) Put the baking sheet with the loaves into the oven. The bread should take about half an hour to bake. Three or four times during the baking open up the oven and baste the loaves with the egg white. The loaves are done when you can thump them with your finger and they sound hollow and there is no more smell of alchohol.

That’s it. It’s not hard. Nothing is as good as bread made by hand. Store bread and bread machine breads are too perfect. This bread is crusty, and funky. Each loaf is unique — and it tastes better. Give it a try.