Makes 2 small loaves, best eaten the day after baking.

Day 1, evening. Sourdough culture build.

75g active rye sourdough culture

250g dark (wholemeal) rye flour

250g warm water.

Combine all the ingredients together, cover and leave ambient overnight.

Day 1, evening. Coffee spice scald

50g dark malt flour (available from brewing shops)

75g dark rye flour

25g toasted caraway seed

25g toasted coriander seed

75g malt extract

300g strong hot coffee

Combine all the ingredients and leave ambient overnight.

Day 2, The next morning

500g dark rye flour (I used Hodmedods rye flour)

350g whole-wheat flour (I used Hodmedods YQ flour)

75g honey

50g neutral oil

25g fine sea salt

450g warm water (40°c)

To the sourdough culture and the scald add the above ingredients and mix to combine.Cover the bowl and allow to ferment in a warm place for approximately 4 hours until the surface looks slightly domed and you can see the start of small pinprick holes. Prepare 2 tins by greasing thoroughly and press your dough into the tins using wet hands - it should reach just over half way. I then sprinkled the surface of my dough with more seeds but using rye flour makes it easier to tell when your loaf is ready for baking. You can dock the loaf if you like the way it looks - see my photo.

Allow to prove in the tins for a couple of hours until the flour surface becomes cracked and you can see those pin prick holes again. Bake in a hot oven (230°c) for 40-50 minutes. Test the internal temperature with a digital thermometer - it should read 97°c.

Allow to cool on a wire rack and wait till the following day to enjoy!

All the gear. What’s useful (and what’s not).

Digital thermometers

Maintaining the ‘right’ temperature isn’t just important for humans – it also makes a massive difference to the yeasts that are powering your bread. I bake with two types of yeast: wild yeast, also known as sourdough, and baker’s yeast - the manufactured dried granules you buy in the supermarket. Both types of yeast are single cell organisms which needs food, moisture, and warmth to thrive. The food and moisture requirements are relatively straightforward– delivered in the form of the starches and sugars in the flour you make your bread with, and water to moisten the flour to make a dough but the last ‘need’ (warmth) requires a little more focused attention. If your dough (and therefore your yeast) gets too warm whilst it's proving it’s difficult to control and can easily overprove  - essentially the yeasts run out of food and your dough pancakes…

Conversely if your dough is too cool during proving it takes forever for the yeasts to become active, your dough barely rises and your bread bakes like a brick! If this sounds familiar, treat yourself to a digital thermometer – your ideal dough temperature should be 25°c. If you'd like to learn more about how to achieve and manage that ‘desired dough temperature’ (or DDT as we call it in the baking world) join me on a baking class, I’d love to share my knowledge with you!

Baking know how:

Some things to bear in mind if you're working with an enriched dough recipe:

• If your recipe calls for a high proportion of fat its best to add it after the gluten protein strands in your dough have had a chance to bond, making it strong and stretchy. Added too early, the fat coats the flour molecules and makes it tricky for the dough to form.

• Recipes with a high sugar content tend to prove more slowly because of sugars hydroscopic properties. Sugar molecules pull moisture away from the flour (and yeast) making it harder, therefore slower, for the yeast to feed and ferment your dough.

• Bakes with a high sugar and fat content will darken more quickly on the surface. Keep an eye on them towards the end of the bake and cover if neccessary with a silicone mat or tinfoil towards the end of the bake.

What I’m listening to:

Gastropod , described by its American authors as ‘food with a side of science and history’, answers questions like ‘why are those diminutive bottles of balsamic vinegar in the supermarket so expensive, what makes someone a supertaster and are bakers 99% yeast?? That last one was a slight exaggeration but the sourdough episode is fascinating! With an impressive back catalogue going back years this podcast comes highly recommended if your idea of heaven is getting your food geek on for a quiet couple of hours.

What I’m reading

What makes a ‘National Dish’ is the question posed by the author Anya Von Bremzen . I’d pose another question  - is it good to read about pizza in bed? This book has made me hungry at some strange times of the day!

Looking at the world through the lens of food, Anya von Bremzen’s book “National Dish’ explores six of the worlds fascinating and iconic culinary cultures. Covering France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Mexico, and Turkey it brilliantly weaves cuisine, history, and politics around the stories of how these dishes came to symbolise a nation. Highly recommended, though maybe not at bedtime.

Upcoming classes

17th February - French baking

19th February - Scandinavian bread baking

9th March - Advanced sourdough baking

23rd March & 26th March - Easter baking

12th April - European baking