My bread journey continued from my first foray into the world of sourdough which became better and better with each attempt. I have made up and given away starter to at least half a dozen friends and family who have all succeeded too and caught the bread bug.

My bread got so good, I was able to wrap it in newspaper and proudly give loaves as gifts.

I then decided to try and have a jiggle with the recipe/method as is my way – really to make it easier to manage for someone (me) who has to go to work and isn’t at home all day able to tend to dough every fifteen minutes. It worked really well so here goes:

In a ceramic bowl, mix 150g starter, 150g water and 150g strong white flour. Mix well and leave for twelve hours. This is a perfect thing to do of an evening before you hit the sack. You’re basically really feeding up your starter with equal quantities but then removing this amount from the original recipe and then adding the remaining ingredients.

The next morning before work, add in the following and mix well. It should only take a few minutes to do this.

350g strong white flour

100g water

25g olive oil

Leave for 15 minutes while you clean your teeth then knead in 10g good quality fine sea salt. Lightly grease your bowl with olive oil and cover with cling film and a teatowel. Leave all day in a warm place (I put mine in the airing cupboard or on the dining table in the sun if it’s shining!) – Then go to work!

When you get home, take the dough out – it will have really grown at this point – and gently stretch and fold it just for a minute or so.

Lightly cover the base of your dutch oven/casserole dish with a dusting of semolina and shape your dough into a round, with the folds all tucked away underneath. Cover and again leave on the worktop until it has doubled in size, then dust with flour from a fine sieve and slash the top with your lame. Stick into a hot hot oven at 220 degrees for 25 minutes covered – then 25 minutes uncovered. Allow to cool on a rack for half an hour before devouring a chunk before bed. The loaf is PERFECT for sandwiches the next day!

The original method called for a total time of 60 minutes but I felt that this was just a little too long and settled on 50 total after experimenting in either direction. Much of this I am guessing is less science, and more getting to know your own oven so do have a play with timings yourself.

The bad news is… that my starter jar got ‘tidied’ away into the larder for two weeks. We went away and I forgot all about him. I feel terrible but poor Artem is no more. He is expired and cannot be revived – he has gone to the little bakery in the sky so I am hoping that someone might donate me back some of my original little friend so that I can continue his work.

In the meantime, I’m experimenting with French and Italian bread recipes and am today journeying into the world of the one and only “Bonjour, je voudrais une baguette s’il vous plait”.

I shall keep you posted…

TTFN. x