Basic Italian Bread

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I have made several dozen of these. The bread always turns out beautifully. I note that 2 pkgs of instant dry yeast is perfect. I also up the salt 3/4 tsp. When I divide it into two loaves, and I do now nearly always, I find the baking time is closer to 30 ish minutes. I use a pizza pan that comes with holes in the bottom. I second proof and bake on a piece of parchement as another reviewer has already noted. I reduce the heat after the first 20 minutes to 375. Hope that helps. Bake on!

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For those who want to know where to buy cake yeast. I found it at Giant supermarket in the egg/cheese section. It is a 2-oz cube.

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Have made this recipe several times and this is absolutely the easiest and best Italian bread recipe I have ever made. I used 6 tsp of active dry yeast because I didn't have cake yeast. My husband found me a wonderful stone that barely fits inside my oven and I don't have a peel but I used a long piece of parchment paper sprinkled with corn meal when doing the final proof. I then put the bread still on the parchment paper onto the stone to bake it. Baked it for 15 minutes then loosely covered it with foil and baked it an additional 15 minutes because I prefer it a bit lighter in color.Makes the best sandwiches, toast and French toast minus the sesame seeds. Happy eating everyone!

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This recipe is the best, and is really hard to mess up. I divided it into two loaves after the first rise, and each loaf was perfect to give away, and one of the smaller can be eaten in a day at our place. I use 2 Tbsp. of active dry yeast, and it turns out perfect. Now if I can just leave the room when my mixer is working on the dough... it dances across the counter top. I consider this one of the funnies of making this bread.:

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I've been looking for a basic Italian bread recipe and this one fits the bill! It was easy to make and was delicious! I'll definitely be keeping this recipe as one of my standards.

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Baking bread may seem daunting if you have not tried it. It is in truth easy and more basic than you think. Its not hard at all. Most of the time involved is inactive so you can be doing almost anything else. Staring at bread does no make it rise faster. The best parts are the smell (which is amazing,also your family will be so impressed. I made this bread the other night and made garlic bread. Huge hit. The rest of the bread made great sand. Good luck. Try this you will be able to do it.

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I made this today and it was great. I did not have sesame seeds so I brushed with egg white and grated some parmagiano regiano on it - I also baked at 400 for 40 minutes as suggested by some other people. I paired it with Alex G.'s Homemade butter recipe - It was very easy and I will make this again.

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This recipe was great! the one downfall is that the loaf was HUGE. My only regret was not scaling down the recipe

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I just ,made my dough but need to know if I can use a heavy duty cookie sheet or regular bread pans?

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I use this recipe as my "go-to" for Italian bread; my family is from Puglia, and I know they're proud of me for being able to bake as they do. I've found that dough making has a lot to do with touch. The first time I made this recipe, against my instincts, I used exact (or at least I thought they were measurements and my first loaf was denser and drier than it should have been. This last loaf was probably my best. I added more water. The dough pulled away from my hand but was slightly sticky. I have found also that in every instance the cooking time is much less: 30 minutes tops. I can't find fresh yeast here in TN so I use the dry, converting it appropriately. This is a fantastic and easy way to make authentic Italian bread. Buon appetito!