5-6 cups bread or all-purpose flour
2 packages dry yeast (4.5 Teaspoons)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups hot water (125F)
Sesame, poppy seeds or whatever takes your fancy (optional but do not use flax seed, we tried and they suck!)
Place 4 cups flour in a large bowl, add yeast salt, & sugar.
Stir until well blended. Pour in water, beat 100 strokes, or
3 min with mixers flat beater.
Gradually work in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, until dough
loses stickiness.
Sprinkle work surface with flour. Work in flour as you knead,
keep dusting work surface. Knead for 8 min, until dough is smooth
and elastic.
Put dough in greased, covered bowl until doubled in size. Depending on the ambient temp this could be as little as 15 minutes or as long as an hour or more!
Punch dough down, turn onto work surface, cut in 2. Shape each
into round, roll it in chosen seeds or whatever and place on baking sheet covered with a sheet of parchment paper
Place baking sheet in middle of cold oven. Put a pan of hot water
in the shelf below. Turn oven to 400F and bake until loaves are deep golden
brown, roughly 45-50 minutes should do it. Thump the bottom- if they sound hollow, they are done.
This bread doesn’t stay fresh for long, but it usually gets devoured so
fast that it doesn’t matter; freezes well. We have had good luck
varying the flour, although you may have to increase the rise time.
We have often added garlic and various other herbs/spices to the dough with great results.