Eastern European white bread

I was just playing with dough, and my experiment yielded a bread that my husband claims is better than the breads from back home. Well, it definitely tasted good with ajvar, but that is my ajvar-addiction speaking.

Ingredients
1.25 cup water
2 tsp yeast
1.5 tsp honey
3 cups flour
1.5 tsp salt
oil spray

Preparation
Bloom the yeast with the honey in quarter cup of water.

Add the remaining water and 2.5 cups of flour. Mix until well blended. Cover with foil and allow to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.

The dough will become incredibly stretchy and puffy. Sprinkle in the salt and another quarter to half a cup of flour. Work it in well.

Cover the dough and allow it to rise, folding it with an oiled spatula every 20-30 minutes. Repeat this twice. Pour the dough out onto a baking sheet with parchment paper. Shape and brush with oil. Allow to rise for 25 minutes (up to an hour for an airy crumb).

Preheat the oven to 500F. Turn it down to 450F right before placing the bread inside. Spray the bread with water and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a cookie rack. Serve with ajvar (if you have any :-).

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