350g Water

100g Active Starter

500g Shipton Mill Organic White No4

8g Salt

Combine the water and starter in a bowl then add the flour.
Mix until there is no dry flour then cover and leave for about an hour.

Sprinkle the salt over the surface of the dough and, with a wet hand, squeeze the dough to incorporate the salt, cover and leave for one hour.

Scrape out onto a damp worktop and stretch and fold over six to eight times, pick up with a bench scraper and drop back into the bowl, the side that was on the worktop should be the top.

Leave for an hour then repeat the strech and fold, do this a total of four times, you will notice the dough becoming more smooth and resilient

Leave to prove until almost double in size.

Do the final shaping then leave for its final proving (I time things for this to be done overnight in the fridge)

Put a roasting tin in the bottom of the oven then preheat the oven to 250C

Turn out the loaf onto a baking sheet, score in your preferred way and place in the oven, at the same time VERY CAREFULLY pour about 500ml of boiling water into the roasting tin, bake for 40 minutes.