This is a great recipe for you if you love sourdough, but just can't find the time to make it. With just a little forward planning to make sure your starter is up and running, you can produce a great sourdough loaf with just 10 minutes work.

Ingredients

• Starter 150g (my starter is 2 parts wholemeal rye to 3 parts water)
• White flour (Shipton Organic Strong Plain White) 530g
• Water 300g
• Salt 8g
• Method

Method

Some time before

Feed up your starter and make sure it will be ready to go ...

Late evening

Add the flour and salt to a large bowl and mix briefly. Then add the starter and the water and mix thoroughly to form a rough dough. Cover in plastic bag / clingfilm and leave in a warm place over night.

Next morning

Place your dough on to a well floured surface, fold a couple of times and shape. (The dough is quite sticky, so use plenty of flour.) Place your shaped dough in a well floured bannetone to prove.

Leave in a warm place to prove. It usually takes 3-4 hours to double in size.

Pre-heat the over to 250C. I bake this loaf in an earthenware cloche at 250C for 15 mins and then at 220C for a further 20-25 mins. The cloche isn't necessary, but helps with the crust - the main thing is to start with a very hot oven, then to turn it down a bit to avoid burning.

I'm told you're not supposed to, but we always eat the loaf hot, pretty much straight out of the over, when it is absolutely delicious!

NOTE - the precise quanitities of ingredients work very well for me, but try tweaking the flour to water ratio to change the texture. More water gives you a more open struecture to you bread, but is harder to handle; less flour and it's easier to shape, but more closed.

If you try this recipe, please leave a comment to let me know how you got on, especially if you've got any suggested improvements. Thanks