How to Make Italian Bread on Pizza Stone

Impress your friends and family with delicious homemade bread.

Using a bread machine and a pizza stone takes the mystery out of achieving a perfect loaf of homemade Italian bread. Serve the bread as an accompaniment to nearly any dinner, cut into hunks for bruschetta, serve with dip or cheese, or use for sandwiches or the staple ingredient in French toast.

Things You'll Need

• Bread machine
• Pizza stone
• Cutting board
• Pastry brush
• 3 cups unbleached flour
• 1 tbsp. light brown sugar
• 1 1/3 cups warm water
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
• 0.25-ounce package dry active yeast
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp. water
• 2 tbsp. cornmeal

Instructions

1. Place the flour, brown sugar, warm water, salt, olive oil and yeast in the bread machine pan. Select the dough cycle and press start.

2. Place the pizza stone in the oven, and preheat to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Oven must be preheated at least 30 minutes before baking.

3. Punch down the dough, and turn it out onto a slightly floured surface. Form dough into two loaves. Place the loaves seam-side down on a cutting board generously sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until the dough has doubled in size, approximately 40 minutes.

4. In a small bowl, beat together egg and 1 tbsp. water. With a pastry brush, coat loaves with the egg mixture. Make one single long cut down the length of each loaf with a sharp knife. Shake the cutting board gently to ensure loaves aren't sticking. If they do stick, use a pastry knife or spatula to loosen. Slide the loaves onto the heated stone with one careful, but quick, motion.

5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when you knock on the bottoms.

Tips & Warnings

• Add ingredients to the bread pan in the order recommended by your machine's manufacturer.

• Four smaller loaves, rather than two larger ones, are easier to transfer from the cutting board to the stone. The smaller size is also easier to store.

• If you transfer the loaves from board to stone too slowly, expect delicious but flat Italian bread.