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Basic Yeasted Loaf

Ingredients

500g bread flour (the flour in the bread pictured is Shipton Mills French Type 55)
340g room temperature water
7g dried yeast
10g salt

Method

The night before, combine 200g of water, 200g flour and 0.20g of the yeast in a bowl and mix well. Cover with cling film and leave over night / 12 hours.

The next day, add the rest of the ingredients, 140g of water, 300g of flour, 6.80g of yeast and 10g of salt.

Knead by hand or in a stand mixer for 8 minutes, on my stand mixer I use speed 4. After 8 minutes kneading leave to rest for 3 minutes. Wet your bench, dough scraper, hands using a spray bottle, tip the dough out on to the wet surface and it and shape in to a ball, place back in to the bowl, cover it with cling film and leave to rest for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

After a hour and a half wet the dough scraper, hands, bench and tip the dough upside down out of the bowl on to the bench. Shape tightly in to a ball, dust the top with flour, cover with proving cloth and leave for 15 minutes.

During the 15 minutes dust your banneton with rice flour and set your oven to pre-heat at 220ºC, with a large baking tray on a middle shelf. Place a large roasting tray in the bottom of the oven for water.

After 15 minutes loosen the dough and flip it so it’s top / flour side down on a lightly floured bench. De-gas slightly and shape to fit your banneton. Place in the banneton with the dough smooth side facing down. Flour the base of the dough and cover with a proving cloth and leave for 40 minutes to a hour depending on how hot your kitchen is. (The loaf in the picture was proved for 40 minutes at 24ºC)

After the dough has proved, boil a kettle full of water.

Using a pastry brush, brush the excess flour off of the bottom of your dough. Then using the pastry brush, brush the base of the dough with room temperature water.

Take the baking tray out of the oven and place over the banneton, carefully turn everything the right way up, remove the banneton, being careful not to knock the gas out of the dough when you flip everything over, or burn yourself.

Score from one end to the other of the dough with a razor blade, at an angle, about a centimetre deep.

Gently place in to the oven, fill the roasting tray with water and close the door quickly.

Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool.