Begin to work the dough. The idea is to stretch it and get as much air into it as possible. Forget the way you have probably been taught to knead the dough, by pummelling it with the heel of your hands and rotating it.

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

buy most of mine from Shipton Mill in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, who offer an amazing range of flours from all over the world, for use in every style of baking.

have finished all but the Sweet Dough chapter with a slightly more challenging bread for you to try once you begin to feel comfortable with baking.

Yeast – I am tempted to say only use fresh yeast and avoid dried, but it is worth having some dried yeast in the cupboard for that moment when you have an overwhelming urge to bake and you find you are out of fresh. One of the things that seems to amaze people is how easy it is to use fresh yeast. I don’t believe in adding sugar and warm water to

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

All of the breads in this book can be frozen, except for the Puff Ball. However, I would recommend you part-bake them first to retain freshness. Make sure the bread is thoroughly cool before freezing, wrap in greaseproof paper and seal in a plastic food bag. To use the bread, put into a cold oven, turned to 200ºC – by the time the oven reaches the

If you keep back a 200g piece of dough when you make your first batch of bread, you can leave it in the fridge, ‘refreshing it’ from time to time, to develop its flavour.

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.