Freshly-Baked Herb Bread!

Ingredients for Herb Bread:

• 1-1/2 cups warm water
• 1 packet rapid-rise yeast
• 1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 3-1/4 cups PLAIN flour (not bread or strong flour, just plain!)
• 3 tablespoons dried Italian herbs, more or less

How to Make Anita's Herb Bread:

1. In a large mixing bowl, put in the flour, add the yeast packet, the salt and mix well. Add the herbs, mixing well—use enough so that you can actually see the herbs! Then add the 120°F water. Use one hand to mix it all up and use the back of a knife blade to scrape your hand clean! That tip passed down from my mom!
2. Let sit out at room temperature covered with an old (clean!) tea towel, for one hour, to rise.
3. Knock down the risen dough, cover again, let sit another hour.
4. Turn the oven to 450°F and fill a shallow container with tap water (I use a small rectangular baking tin from the Dollar Store for this) and place it directly underneath your pizza stone, on the next rack down. Leave enough room above the pizza stone's rack so the dough can rise and not burn.
5. Shape the dough into an oblong loaf, pulling the sides down and under to create a nice smooth top. Put this dough on top of your pizza paddle with parchment paper directly on top of the paddle. This enables the dough to slide off the paddle, directly onto the stone in the oven.
6. Make a couple of slashes across your dough with a sharp knife and let sit on the parchment paper, on the paddle, while the oven heats up.
7. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove the parchment paper: Pull out the oven shelf, use an oven mitt and grab a corner of the parchment paper and use a small spatula to separate the bread from the paper. Usually the paper will just slide right on out. Push the shelf back in and we're ready to finish baking!
8. Bake for 20 minutes. Take the bread out and tap it, it should sound hollow when done.
9. Let cool completely (yeah, right). Spread with butter. Indulge. Enjoy.