A great tasting and versatile, classic bread that will leave you wondering what they used to remove bread dough from stoneware before Fairy liquid was invented.

Ingredients:

The Poolish: (prepare 24hrs in advance of baking)

• 1/2 tsp yeast (any dried works)
• 225ml (ish) lukewarm water
• 200g strong, white bread flour.

The remaining dough:

• 500g strong white bread flour
• 1tsp yeast
• 400ml lukewarm water
• plain flour for kneading

Method:

1. Prepare the poolish the day before you intend to make the bread. Combine the ingredients in a bowl, allowing for the mixture to double in size. Leave covered overnight.
2. Weigh out the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add the poolish and mix well.
3. Scant the water into the mixture to form a very,very wet dough.
4. Leave the bowl you prepared the poolish in soak forever.
5. Gently knead the mixture for a minute or two, folding the dough over itself and pressing down firmly.
6. Leave to prove for at least 2hrs, at most 20hrs.
7. Split into two equal sized balls of dough, you will need to either have a bowl of water or oil at hand and learn to deal with squelchy dough, or have a bag of flour handy to shape the dough into a roughly round shape. It is very, very sticky! Do as much of the work as possible with a silicon spatula. Transfer to a very well floured baking tray. Leave to prove for 20-30 minutes.
8. Leave the bowl to soak with the poolish bowl. Or attempt to loosen the glue-like dough mixture with a blow-torch. Or, to save lots of energy, time, and cleaning products just “accidentally” drop the bowls and replace them later.
9. Once the loaves have proved, and doubled in size once more, very gently pick them up and tuck the sides under the main dough to forma ball again. Again, use a barrier between your hands and the dough. It is still deceptively very, very sticky!
10. Score the tops of the loaves with a sharp knife, then put in a preheated oven at 210*c for 30-40minutes, until golden brown on top. It is a bread that is traditionally served well baked-unlike modern pale offerings from the local supermarket bakery. To achieve this, think two shades darker on the Dulux colour chart than you expect, and you’re at the right level of well-baked.
11. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
12. Keeps well for several days, preferably stored in a wax wrapper.