Crust

Folding – When a recipe calls for the dough to be rested more than once, you need to re-shape the dough in between each resting to reinforce it and help the flavour to develop. This is the point where an English recipe would call for the dough to be ‘knocked back’, which roughly translates as punching the living daylights out of it. I prefer to use

There are lots of different names for the ferment that is at the heart of sourdough bread – levain, biga, starter – but I’m going to stick with that one word: ferment.

If you do use dried yeast, buy the ‘easy-blend’ type and halve the ratio of yeast to flour recommended on the pack.

As you continue to work the dough it will expand as the air bubbles get trapped inside and feel silky, smooth and firm, yet at the same time lively and a little wobbly, and it should come away from your work surface cleanly. If, after you have been working it for 10–15 minutes, the dough is still a bit sticky, don’t panic. You’ve still done enough

Now that the dough is beginning to rise, you want to slow down the fermentation a little, so that the dough can mature gently. To do this, put it in the bottom of the fridge for a further 2 days. If you like your sourdough more sour than sweet (personally, I don’t) you can leave it for 4 to 5 days.

You can make the simplest and most basic ferment by mixing some warm water with very good, strong white flour and leaving it in a warm place for 36 hours until it starts to ferment. Anything else you add, over and above flour and water, as long as it is live, like yogurt, or sweet and sugary, like honey or fruit, will feed the wild yeast, boost the

The flours I use come from small, artisan mills such as Shipton Mill in Tetbury, Gloucestershire (which also imports specialist ciabatta and 00 flour from Italy) and Bacheldre Watermill in Wales.

6. Wholemeal – This flour is sometimes called wholewheat flour, and is often seen as the most healthy as it contains the whole grain, whereas a brown flour contains around 85%, and white flour 75–80%.

Then, with the help of your scraper, turn out your dough onto your (unfloured) surface, ready to work it.