Live on bread & water? Ummm... Okay!!!

Well, with the kids off sledding and the hubby out plowing... I set to using some of that dough I made last night. It looks far too soupy to be bread dough. There's no kneading. No proofing the yeast. Nothing particular at all about making and baking this bread. As the recipe instructs, I pulled off a 1lb. chunk and let it rise for 40 minutes. I made the necessary slices on top (steam vents, I assume) and baked for 1/2 hour.

Here it is in all its glory- just plopped on the stone in a hot oven. Note the mass of cornmeal. A necessary step to get the very sticky dough off the peel (or rimless cookie sheet, in my case). Thanks for the tips, Jamie!

And, here is my result. It was fabulous. Very very very good. So good, in fact, I am currently baking the rest of that batch of dough at my family's insistence. Of course, I already mixed up another batch of dough and it's rising in its container on the counter. (You really wouldn't believe how easy this was or how yummy that bread was... You simply must try it!)

Okay... a little sheepishly here, I'm going to show you what the second batch looks like. My enthusiasm led to haste and I forgot those pretty little cuts on top. Seems that those vents are mighty important to the aesthetics of the loaf. Not to the taste or texture, just the looks. So, it looks like a mutant loaf, but Jamie assures me that it will taste wonderful anyhow... Guess she's forgotten a time or two. Now... don't laugh!