1. Put 1/4 cup of the bread flour on a clean counter top and reserve. Place remaining 3 3/4 cups bread flour in bowl of mixer. Spoon the yeast into one side of the bowl, and the salt on the other side. Pour in the warm water and with your regular mixer paddle, mix on low speed until the dough comes together in a mass. Switch to the dough hook. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Dough should clear the sides but stick to the bottom. If it is too sticky, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time. If too dry, add 1 tablespoon of water to dough to adjust. After 2 minutes, let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

2. Turn the mixer on again and mix for 3 minutes. Take the dough out and place on the counter. Remember that 1/4 cup of flour that we reserved? We’ll use it now. As you knead the dough by hand, incorporate more flour as needed. Knead by hand until the dough is very satiny, smooth, tight and formed into a nice, compact ball. Place this dough in a large lightly oiled bowl. Turn dough over so that all sides have a thin coating of oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set in warm place for 1 1/2 hours. Dough should almost double in size. Punch dough down and form back into a ball. Poke your finger on the surface -- the dough should give into the pressure and slowly creep back up.

3. About 1 hour into the rest stage, preheat your oven to 450F. Place your pizza stone or inverted baking sheet into the oven to heat up.

4. Cut the dough in half -- you’ll shape 1/2 at a time (keep the other piece under wraps). Pick up the dough and stretch it out until it forms a big rectangle. On a countertop dusted with flour, fold over the wider ends. Now stretch out the long ends again. Fold over in half, tucking the middle inside. Pinch all sides shut. This is important -- you want to make sure that all ends including the short ends are pinched tightly to create a seal. This allows the bread to rise and expand evenly. If the bread looks a little lopsided, you can try to fix it by letting it rest 5 minutes and gently stretching it out again. Just don’t knead the dough again or you’ll pop all the beautiful gas that took 1.5 hours to create!

5. Turn the bread over so that it is seam-side down. Cover the loaf with a damp kitchen towel. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Leave the loaves to rest on your well-floured pizza peel or cutting board for 30 minutes. After resting, take a sharp paring knife and make 3 to 4 shallow, diagonal slashes on the surface of the loaf. This allows the steam in the bread to escape so that it expands evenly during the baking process.

6. When you are ready to bake, carefully slide the gorgeous loaf into or onto your baking vessel. The most important equipment to have is an instant-read thermometer to measure the temperature of the bread.

7.  Get 1/2 cup of water ready next to the stove. Open the stove, put your bread in the oven and throw the water on the oven floor. Immediately close the oven door to create steam. Bake 20-25 minutes. Check the internal temperature of the bread -- it should read 190-210F. Remove and let cool before cutting into it.