Bread sometimes gets a bad wrap with people avoiding it each January trying diligently to lose the weight they may have put on after the holidays.

Bread makes the world a better place and homemade is the best! Hopefully these smaller sized loaves can help resist the urge to indulge too much.

I have created this recipe many times in last month and cannot get over how easy it is — I hope you will enjoy it too.

Crusty White Bread

• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1-1/2 tablespoons instant yeast
• 2 pounds all- purpose flour

Mix everything together in stand mixer for about 1 minute. Spray large bowl with nonstick cooking spray and transfer dough to it. Leave at room temperature, covered with lid, for 2 hours. Refrigerate until ready to bake, up to 7 days.

Sprinkle a bit of flour on top when ready to grab about a third of the dough for one loaf of bread.

Carefully form into round or rounded rectangular shape, and place it on a piece of parchment paper. Cover it with a lightweight kitchen towel. Let rise for 1 to 2 hours before baking.

Baking. Place a baking stone in the oven on a middle rack. Place a baking pan with shallow water beneath on a lower rack to create steam. Preheat oven with stone and pan with water to 450 degrees. Just before baking, make 2 or 3 cuts using a serrated knife on top of loaf.

Using a pizza peel, transfer risen dough onto hot baking stone. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, with a pan filled with some water beneath it on a lower rack.

For the new year, I am going to try something new. Here’s my first cooking YouTube video showing how to make this, which includes two alternate ways to bake the bread. Many thanks to my talented daughter, Lindsey, for all the help in producing this video.

Click here for my super simple bread baking tutorial: Crusty White Bread Baked in Three Ways