don’t use levains because an active sourdough starter does the same job, and in all honesty, my brain can’t process an extra step in my bread making.

Sourdough starters can be started and maintained with almost any flour. However, because I go on about the possibilities of starting starters with any flour, in my humble experience, stoneground, wholemeal, organic flours are the ones that consistently work well. It doesn’t matter whether it’s rye, spelt or wholemeal, just make sure the whole meal

Gluten is often developed by kneading, but this is just one of the many ways, and it certainly isn’t the only one we’ll use. Sometimes kneading is recommended, but many times it’s not. Kneading develops the structure of the gluten, but it doesn’t necessarily develop it in the right way.

It’s easy to tell whether the gluten within a dough has been developed in this way because it will appear smooth and shiny. If you stretch it thin, it will pass the ‘windowpane test’ – this is a test of your gluten’s ability to form thin films in order to create the membranes of your bubbles.

proving in the fridge overnight is roughly equivalent to an extra hour of room-temperature proving. Therefore, if you tuck the dough in the fridge for the night after more than an hour into the second prove, expect a slightly overproved loaf in the morning.

MICHE D’ECOSSE This bread is all about flavour. Sod the huge open bubbles of your ultra-aerated loaves; here we go back to basics and make the best loaf in the world.

Wetter doughs can store more CO2 within the dough itself, which is one of the many reasons that being wetter does tend to give you larger, more irregular bubbles and can be more forgiving if your rises haven’t been as good as you hoped for.

The importance of shaping bread cannot be understated, and it is the most difficult and most technical aspect of bread making to learn. In short, it’s annoying.

this is where feeding your starter comes in. By maintaining a constant food source and, importantly, stopping the whole solution from becoming too alcoholic or too acidic, you can keep this stage of the fermentation going in perpetuity. This is why it’s important not just to feed your starter but to feed it enough. If you just keep adding a little