Prep your oven for rise time and your stand mixing bowl for activating the yeast. Turn your oven on to the lowest setting. (You will turn it off when the dough is prepared.) Fill your mixing bowl with hot water and let it sit while gathering the rest of your ingredients.
Next, activate your yeast. I heat up the 2 cups of water in the microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds. You want your water to be warm to the touch but not steaming hot. Empty the mixing bowl water. Add into the warmed empty mixing bowl the yeast, sugar, and the heated 2 cups of water. Set a timer for 5 minutes while the yeast activates.
Now, your yeast mixture should look foamy on the top. Add in the salt, olive oil, and 4 cups of the flour. Mix with the dough hook. At this point, the dough will look really wet and sticky. We want to start out with less flour and work up to the right texture for the bread without over-flouring... that would make the bread really dense and hard.
Once that is mixed in, you will start adding the remainder of the flour about 2 TBS at a time. What you want to see is the dough begin to form into a ball that isn't sticking to the sides of your mixing bowl. Normally, I use about 5½ cups total.
Once your dough is formed, let the mixer knead for about 5 minutes. Turn the oven off at this point.
Now, your dough is ready for the first rise. Use some olive oil (about 1-2 TBS) to just coat the dough, turning it to coat on all sides. You can leave it in the mixing bowl and cover the bowl with a thin tea towel or flour sack towel. Put it into the off, warmed oven for 45 minutes.
Next, dust a work surface with a little flour. Prepare your loaf dishes buy greasing with butter. This will help your loaves get a nice golden soft outer texture and prevent them from sticking to the dish.
Dump the risen dough onto your floured surface and divide into two equal amounts. Gently fold the outer edges into the center of each of the dough balls about 5-10 times. Sometimes, gently rolling the dough up into a large log shape is helpful. Now pinch any loose open parts of the dough closed and turn them over and place into the greased loaf dishes - smooth side up. Cover both with the tea towel again and return to the off oven for the second rise - about 45 minutes to an hour. What you are looking for is the bread dough to be just risen up to the top of the loaf dish.
Finally, we are ready to bake! Remove the loaves from the oven and uncover. Preheat the oven to 360℉. Once preheated, bake your loaves for 35 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Rub a TBS of butter over the top of each hot loaf and allow it to melt. Let your loaves cool in the dishes for 5 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. The bread center will be a little doughy if cut into before cooling - some don't mind that and some can't wait until the loaf cools!!!
Bread will store covered at room temperature for about 3-5 days. We wrap it in plastic wrap or in a reused plastic bread bag to keep it from hardening. This bread toasts beautifully as well.