Dough

There is a bread for every occasion: a ficelle for breakfast, a baguette for lunch, a pain de mie for croque monsieur, a bigger pain de campagne or sourdough to put on the table or to keep and toast through the whole week.

Ferment – some bakers use the term ‘levain’, which means the same thing – a piece of dough that has been left at least 4–6 hours to ‘ferment’ and which adds character and flavour and lightens the finished bread. A few of the breads use a ‘poolish’, which is just the name for a particular style of ferment.

Alternatively, Leckford Estate Strong White Four, or Canadian Strong White Flour, both from Waitrose, are very good.

A mixing bowl – big enough to hold a kilo of dough. I use a stainless steel bowl.

Now you can flour your work surface lightly, place the dough on top and form it into a ball by folding each edge in turn into the centre10 of the dough and pressing down well with your thumb, rotating the ball as you go11. Turn the whole ball over and stretch and tuck the edges under12. You will come across this technique in various stages througho

Working the dough – the kneading technique that most people are taught in Britain is quite different from the one we use in France, which is all about getting air and life into the dough. So, instead of using the word kneading (which sounds too harsh) I prefer to talk about working the dough.

Plastic scraper – this cheap little gadget is like an extension of my hand. I use it all the time: the rounded end to mix the dough, to help turn it out from the mixing bowl so that it comes out easily in one piece, without stretching, and to scrape up and lift pieces of dough from the work surface. The straight edge can be used for cutting and div

The way to work it is to slide your fingers underneath it like a pair of forks1, with your thumbs on top2, swing it upwards and then slap it back down, away from you, onto your work surface (it will almost be too sticky to lift at this point)3. Stretch the front of the dough towards you, then lift it back over itself in an arc (to trap the air)4, s

Leave the dough for around 1 hour, until it is roughly double in volume – don’t worry if this happens a bit quicker or takes a little longer, as the dough