Faster Artisan Breads II: Sourdough

The Artisan Bakery School

All contents copyright © Penny Williams and Dragan Matijevic 2015

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Published by Pendragan Publishing

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This book cannot be copied, reprinted or redistributed for sale by any mechanical, electronic or other means. The design, photographs and text remain the properties of the authors.

The information contained in this text has been verified and documented as carefully as possible. The authors cannot be held liable for the use of its contents.

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Pendragan Publishing

Old Home Cottage

Sparkwell

Plymouth PL7 5DQ

United Kingdom

First Edition 2013

Table of Contents

Faster Artisan Breads II: Sourdough

Table of Contents

Faster Artisan Breads (FABs) Using Sourdough Culture

Why Sourdough?

Important Starting Tips

The Three Simple Steps to FAB Sourdough

Sourdough Magic – the Starter

Creating a Sourdough Starter

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Using and Maintaining the Starter

Basic Techniques

Rock & Rolling

Chafing

Decorating

Scoring

Basic Tools

Natural Bread Recipes

Basic Bread Ingredients

FAB White Sourdough

FAB Honest Brown

FAB Malted Wheat Treat

FAB Sunny Honey

FAB Smokey Jo

FAB Rustic Walnut

FAB Cheese Ploughman's

Essential Tips

How to Make Bread With Holes

Achieving Better Taste

Better Crumb, Texture and Size

Better Crust

Better Shape

Controlling Speed

Steaming

Storing

Proving

Water & Hydration

Adding Other Ingredients to Basic Dough

Thank you for purchasing this book!

Last Note

Other Books by The Artisan Bakery School

Faster Artisan Breads

Gluten-Free, Gourmet Friendly Breads

Building a Wood Fired Oven in a Day

A Million and One Original Bread Recipes

Artisan Bread for Beginners

Perfect Pizza

Baking Low Gluten & Heritage Breads

The Microbakery Blueprint

The Micropizzeria Blueprint

About The Artisan Bakery School

Contact Us

About Dragan

About Penny

Services

Useful Links

Faster Artisan Breads (FABs) Using Sourdough Culture

Faster Artisan Breads II focuses on using sourdough - a natural, wild yeast culture - to create breads of exceptional character and nutritional value.

If you’re already using our most popular book, Baking Real Sourdough Breads, you’ll notice a few similarities in background information, but the key emphasis here is on our outstanding new FAB method and the new delicious recipes. The FAB method is more advanced and even simpler to use. If you’re altogether new to baking, welcome! You have found an excellent place to start.

Sourdough is traditionally ‘slo-mo’ dough. People naturally conclude that it should take hours of effort to make, and they often give up before they start. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Our FAB method uses 100% natural sourdough starter and yet takes only four minutes of hands-on work!

If you don’t have a sourdough culture, and can’t beg one from a friend, then you can easily make your own in about five days, just one minute a day. Once you have made the culture, it can last a lifetime. Full instructions are given in the chapter headed Sourdough Magic.

There are two secrets to the FAB method. The first lies in using your fridge. This is not a new thing, in fact it is common practice in both artisanal baking and factory bread production to slow down the rate at which dough develops, by chilling it. But we don’t know of anyone who has streamlined the process quite like we have.

The second secret is that, contrary to popular belief, you don’t actually have to knead your dough. Recent research proves that, provided you add sufficient water and mix the dough well, the absorption of the water and the consequent development of the gluten will happen anyway, kneading or no kneading, so long as you leave the dough to rest for long enough.

The FAB Sourdough Method will help anyone from the complete novice to the seasoned professional to make delicious, healthy and beautiful breads with minimum effort, maximum effect and absolutely no cutting corners, in just three simple steps.

Happy baking!

Dragan and Penny

Why Sourdough?

Hand-made organic sourdough is the most natural form of bread you can eat.

That’s because the sourdough culture - the ingredient that raises the dough - is made from the wild yeasts that occur naturally in the flour itself, and in the surrounding environment. The more aggressive strains of commercial baker’s yeast can be completely avoided.

Hand-made sourdough is also a healthier choice because of the length of time it takes for the dough to ripen. Compare less than sixty seconds for a factory loaf to rise with sixty hours in the fridge for a sourdough. The longer the dough matures, the better it is for your digestion.

The benefits of sourdough bread:

Sourdough bread offers health benefits that factory-produced breads full of additives cannot.

1. Thanks to the lactic and acetic acids, the gluten is modified and made far more digestible

2. Sourdough bread satisfies hunger, rather than provoking it

3. It releases sugars more slowly, avoiding the spike/crash effect

4. The crumb is chewier and the crust is crisper

5. The taste is richer, more complex and more enjoyable

6. Sourdough loaves look fabulous!

7. Sourdough bread lasts longer due to its own natural acids acting as preservatives

Because wild yeasts vary according to their environments, a San Francisco sourdough will naturally be different to a Devon sourdough or one made in Croatia, or anywhere else in the world. Yours will be unique to where you live. The taste of real sourdough will never be truly ‘sour’ but it will range in flavour across the spectrum from milky to vinegary, (lactic to acetic acids) depending on how long you leave the starter and the dough to mature.

Contrary to popular myth, baking real sourdough breads need not take hours away from your day. We will show you that, with a little bit of forward planning, it need take only a few minutes. It does take time to ferment, but you can sleep, work, play and generally ignore the dough for days on end so long as it is in a cold enough place. It will quietly continue its life, patiently waiting for you to come back, shape it, and bake it.

Real sourdough bread can be made with organic white, wholemeal, rye or heritage flours. You can combine the flours to create a huge variety of textures, looks and tastes. You can also add a range of other ingredients to produce a sourdough loaf to suit every occasion and match every menu.

Important Starting Tips

First, please leaf through the whole book before you start. This will help you organise your thinking and your kitchen, so you don’t get all floury and frustrated half way through.

Have your baking gear and ingredients lined up in one place. This makes you feel more efficient, which will result in your being more effective.

Remind yourself that you are embarking on a simple, direct method for making natural sourdough bread that will take no more than four minutes of physical effort. It’s a smart choice, not a chore!

Get in the habit of measuring your ingredients as precisely as you can. Professional bakers all over the world use digital scales to weigh the ingredients in grams and kilograms, and you will get better results if you do the same. Weigh the water (grams of water and milliliters are the same) on the scales too, as the calibration on measuring jugs is often unreliable. A few grams more or less water can produce quite different results, not all of which will be that appetising.

If you do decide to use cups and spoons, be aware that different flours have different densities, a cup of white flour A will weigh differently from a cup of white flour B. The best way forward then is to develop a feel for your dough. Make it soft, pliable and not too sticky, and remember that different flour types will require different amounts of water, and this will vary according to the ambient temperature and humidity. Baking in summer and winter are different things.

Start with the simplest recipes; White Sourdough or Honest Brown. When you are happy with your loaves, move on to the recipes with additional ingredients, remembering to make notes of any changes you make, otherwise you’ll forget how you achieved a particular success. It’s a good idea to keep a personal recipe notebook or even a baking diary for this, and you’ll be fascinated to look back on your progress after even just a few months’ baking.

The Three Simple Steps to FAB Sourdough

Here is an example of a schedule - bear in mind that you can mix for multiple loaves:

1. Monday morning: mix the ingredients (3 minutes) and refrigerate

2. Tuesday evening (36 hours later): shape (1 minute) and refrigerate in proving basket

3. Wednesday morning (12 to 14 hours later) bake straight from the fridge (30 minutes in oven)

Total hands on time - 4 minutes - 2 day (48 hour) cycle

By following our unique Three Steps Method, you will be able to bake a beautiful loaf first time. As you quickly gain confidence, you will want to experiment with different flours and additional ingredients such as cheese, beer, seeds and spices. We’ve given you some of our own favourite recipes to try, and hope that they will inspire you to create your own.

Time, Temperature and Technique

The three magic elements that rule the whole process of bread making are time, temperature and technique.

Time - the more time you give your dough to develop, the better its taste will be, and the better it will be for your health. But if you leave it too long at normal temperatures, it will collapse.

Temperature - if you lower the temperature you will be able to extend the time. This process is called retardation. It slows down the rate at which yeast ferments and dough rises, so that the flavours and dough texture can mature. The common myth is that the dough has to be kept somewhere warm, while in fact it will still be active even inside a cold fridge. By lowering the dough temperature and keeping it in the fridge for between 24 hours and 124 hours, your FAB breads will taste amazing, even though you’ve hardly touched them! The ideal dough temperature before putting FAB dough into the fridge is 30°C - 86°F and in the fridge it is 10°C - 50°F, although it can be lower.

Technique - we have explained the simplest techniques for handling dough and shaping loaves below so that they are really easy to learn.

Sourdough Magic – the Starter

Although many bakers refer to this gloop as the ‘mother’, we call it the starter because you can’t start without it.

Unless you are baking every day, your starter pet lives in the fridge, and has to be fed once a week. If not fed for more then three weeks, it will probably die. Feeding it is simple, by adding half water, half flour and mixing it until smooth.

The name sourdough is misleading, because the taste of natural bread is not necessarily sour. It can range from mildly tangy to moderately acidic, depending on various factors, including the percentage of starter to flour, the kind of flour chosen, the time given to rising/fermentation.

You can control the taste simply by playing with the amount of starter you use and the time that you keep the dough in the fridge. More starter and more time equal more taste.

A bit of interesting background information:

A starter is a culture of micro organisms, mainly yeasts and healthy bacteria. These yeasts and bacteria exist in the air, but most of them are naturally present in the flour itself: in every 1g of flour there will be about 13,000 cells of wild yeast and 320 cells of lactic acid bacteria, plus various enzymes. The yeast, friendly bacteria and enzymes react together to produce carbon dioxide gas, alcohol and other acids that are good for the flavour of the bread, as well as transforming the gluten strands that are so important for volume. If all this sounds complex, remember, all you are doing to start with is mixing equal weights of flour and water.

Many people believe that sourdough tastes vary according to geographical location, due to the local flora (wild yeast spores and bacteria). We wouldn’t disagree. Lactic acid (the bite in vintage cheddar) and acetic acid (the kick in vinegar) also play their part in the taste and can be balanced to different effects. Some sourdough starters are reputed to be hundreds of years old; certainly they are jealously guarded by their owners and handed down through generations of baking families. Happily, it’s never too late to start your own!

Creating a Sourdough Starter

Sourdough starter is a mixture of flour and water - and time. Once created it can be a living pet in your fridge for years. Ours is 21 years old.

All you need to do is to keep it at room temperature while you’re creating it, and regularly add more flour and water to build up a colony of natural yeasts and bacteria, the micro-organisms that will eventually work the magic in your dough.

You can get a starter from another baker nearby or you can make your own natural bread starter in around five days.

To increase the chances of success, it is best to use mineral or filtered water and organic flour (chlorine in water and chemicals in non-organic flour kill yeasts). The timetable and the details for each day are in the following pages.

Day 1

Please note the cups and gram weights are not equivalent.

Wholemeal flour 150g - ¾ cup

Water 150g - ½ cup

Simply mix the flour with water until you have a smooth paste. It’s best to do this in a glass container with a lid – but don’t seal it because it might explode. Our glass bowl had the blue plate on it as a cover.

We start off with wholemeal flour because it naturally contains more wild yeasts.

Day 2

The first few bubbles are starting to appear…

Discard about half of the mix from the Day 1.

Wholemeal flour 150g - ¾ cup

Water 150g - ½ cup

Mix until smooth.

Day 3

A greater number of smaller bubbles are now showing up – less like boiling porridge and more like thick champagne! This is because by now you should have around 13,000 cells of wild yeast and about 333 cells of lactic bacteria – or something very near that – in every 1 gram of culture (someone counted this, we promise). It’s getting to be a very busy bowl. The mixture looks paler here because we’ve started adding white flour.

Discard half the culture from Day 2:

Wholemeal flour 150g - ¾ cup

Water 150g - ½ cup

Mix until smooth.

Day 4

Discard half the mixture from Day 3 and add:

Wholemeal flour 150g - ¾ cup

Water 150g - ½ cup

Lactic acid should really start to develop. This will inhibit mould and bad bacteria from developing. Notice the traces of mixture on the sides of the bowl, where the starter has risen after being fed, peaked and then dropped - ready to feed again.

Day 5

Discard half the mixture from Day 4 and add:

White bread flour 150g - ¾ cup

Water 150g - ½ cup

By now the mixture should have sufficient vigour for raising your bread. At this stage, you may want to build up the volume for a few more days, by adding equal quantities of flour and water, without discarding anything. This will give you enough starter to use in your baking, while still leaving enough to feed for the next bake. You will also reap the rewards of richer, more complex flavours.

Each time before you feed the starter you will find that it is more and more bubbly and yeasty/acid smelling and tasting, while after feeding it will go sweet tasting and flat. When you have this active, almost frothy, nutty, acidy starter than you’re ready. There are bakers who taste and make tasting notes at intervals throughout the day, and while you don’t need to go that far, it’s worth tasting your starter to understand what’s going on.

Using and Maintaining the Starter

Using the starter

After you feed the starter, you put it back in the fridge for 24 hours, by which time it should have reached a good strength for using in your dough. Unlike conventional sourdough methods, you do not have to make a production leaven or bring the starter to room temperature for 12 hours or so before using, you just use the recently-fed starter straight from the fridge.

Always make sure you have enough starter left over to feed up for your next bake. For example, if you need 450g - 3 cups of starter for your bake, make sure you have 600g - 4 cups in your container. You would use your 450g - 3 cups for your dough, leaving 150g starter in your container. You would then feed your 150g starter with 225g flour - ½ cup of flour and 225g - ½ cup of water, bringing the total back to 600g to keep in the fridge.

Maintaining the starter.

In order to keep this crowd of ‘yeasty-beasties’ lively, you will have to treat the whole thing as a fridge pet and feed it at regular intervals. You should feed it at least once a week if you’re not baking regularly, although the starter may survive unattended in the fridge for up to three weeks. The feeding ratio is 50% flour, 50% water. You can feed the whole thing, or if it has gone too acidic you can throw some away (up to 80% of it) and feed the remainder. If a dark layer of hooch, or alcohol, appears on the top, throw this away and feed the rest.

Basic Techniques

Rock & Rolling

Rock & rolling is the most effective way of manipulating the dough to ensure the flour absorbs the water properly, and that the gluten develops fully. It is also a good method for incorporating extra ingredients into the dough, as well as for the final shaping of the dough.

Rock & roll works by rolling the dough up one way, then turning it round ninety degrees, rough side upwards, and rolling it up again. While you are rolling it, you rock it as well so that it doesn’t stick to the surface.

Clean the dough off your hands before you start and give it a try.

The following sequence makes one Rock & Roll turn. In time you will learn to do the rolls quite quickly. This will make the dough less sticky.

1. Indent the dough with your thumbs

2. Pull and fold the dough over using your fingers (do not grab the dough)

3. Push the dough forward with your thumbs (you should feel it stretch and puff up a little)

4. Pull the dough over with your fingers, avoiding squeezing it.

5. Push forward with your thumbs, thus stretching and sealing the dough. End of cycle.

6. Turn the dough ninety degrees, with its ‘seam’ (not the smooth side) up and repeat the steps.

Chafing

Chafing means rotating and stretching the dough downwards with your palms and gently tucking it under itself around the edges so that it forms a ball with a very smooth outer membrane.

The purpose of chafing is to tighten the dough before letting it rise and relax.

1. Start with your hands on the sides and tuck the dough under, so your palms almost meet

2. Rotate ninety degrees and tuck the dough under again

3. Rotate again and tuck the dough under until you have a smooth, tight ball

Decorating

1. If using, apply glaze (egg wash, oil etc.) with a brush. Scatter surface with seeds to stick to egg wash, if desired

2. Alternatively, dredge with flour. You can use a paper stencil to create different designs.

Scoring

Scoring the dough just before placing it in the oven is really important, not only for the looks, but for the final size of your loaf

Scoring Tip: The baguette on the left was not scored. Note how much airier the crumb is in the scored baguette on the right

Score the loaf surface using a a very sharp blade (lame or grignette). When scoring take care to start lightly. It is better to first make a shallow incision and then score more deeply with several more consecutive cuts, thus avoiding dragging and pulling the dough with your blade

Scoring evens out the way the dough rises in the oven (oven spring) and prevents unsightly bulges! It also makes the crumb lighter and airier. Score up to 3cm deep

Scoring the loaves gives:

• pleasing appearance

• control of crust break

• even crumb

• better expansion of bread

• identity – your own signature on the loaf

Various cuts for oblong loaves:

Tip: Cuts from end to end make loaves expand sideways. Cuts from side to side make them expand upwards. Really short cuts are decorative and don’t have to be deep.

Various cuts for round loaves

Basic Tools

Check your basic equipment

a) Digital scales or cups

b) Cooking thermometer

c) Large jug

d) Mixing bowl

e) Plastic scraper

f) Sharp blade, (lame or grignette) for scoring dough

g) Either a couple of bannetons or a couple of baskets / bowls you can line with a clean, floured teacloth.

h) A couple of non-stick baking trays, or metal trays lined with baking parchment

Enough free space in your fridge to keep the mixing bowl for your dough.

Natural Bread Recipes

The most important thing for a baker to develop is a feel for the dough. It should never be hard and dry. Remember, the wetter the dough, the better the bread. However, if you have too much water in your dough, it might not have a strength to keep its shape. As a general rule, if the dough is soft to pinch and it is slightly sticky, then all is well.

Sooner or later, you will want to start experimenting with different ingredients, so we have given you a few of our favourites here to play with.

Once you get the hang of mixing in the different ingredients, the only limit is your own imagination! You can adjust the combinations and the proportions of ingredients so long as you remember not to over-crowd the dough, which will prevent it from rising properly and produce a very heavy bread.

For many more recipe combinations check our e-book, ‘A Million and One Original Recipes’. We have listed more than 100 different ingredients you could add to the basic bread dough, with suggestions for quantities and how to combine them.

Important Note: while basic dough will keep in the fridge for up to five days, dough made with extra ingredients will only keep up to two or three days.

If you want to speed your timings, you can increase the amount of starter in the recipes to up to 50%. Bear in mind, though, that the more starter there is, the faster will dough ‘break up’ or become gloopy and you will not be able to shape it well. If you add over 50%, you will be facing rapid breakdown of gluten and will have to keep a keen eye on your dough development.

Basic Bread Ingredients

We use organic flours, organic sea salt and filtered water.

Flour

Each type of flour has its own characteristics.

White wheat flour will give the best rise. A heritage white flour will usually be trickier to work with and will include a blend of different heritage wheats and may appear almost creamy in colour. It will also have a more interesting flavour.

Wholemeal flour, particularly stoneground, is highly nutritious, but because it is ‘whole’, meaning nothing has been removed, it still contains bran. Bran is rough and tends to burst the gas bubbles in the dough, resulting in a slightly lower rise than the white flour, and a denser crumb. A wholemeal loaf is one made entirely with wholemeal flour, and will be fairly heavy. A brown loaf includes some white flour to lighten the dough.

Rye flour is very much lower in gluten than wheat flour, and produces an even lower rise with a denser and very moist crumb. It has rich and distinctive flavour, and is enjoyably chewy. Rye also combines well with white flour to produce a rustic loaf.

We work mainly with organic heritage flour. This is flour that has not been meddled with! It comes from ancient wheat varieties and those that have not been super-hybridised in order to get higher yields. Our customers who have problems eating mass-produced bread often tell us that they enjoy our organic, heritage loaves without any digestive troubles.

Water

All life depends on water. In general, the more water you add, the livelier your dough will be and the airier the crumb in the final loaf. Some breads demand up to 85% hydration (water) in comparison to the flour weight, but 60% to 75 % is more common. We believe it is important to use mineral or filtered water in baking, as the chlorine and chemicals present in tap water negatively affect the yeast.

Yeast

Yeasts are spores that belong to the fungi kingdom. Wild yeasts (Saccharomyces exiguus) are naturally present in the growing grain, the flour and the air. A mixture of flour and water left on its own will eventually start to ferment thanks to the yeast. Baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was first produced commercially about 200 years ago, and can be purchased in blocks of putty-like substance from supermarkets or local bakeries. Some manufacturers are now using GMO ingredients to make baker’s yeast - do check!  The acids present in wild yeast sourdough have the effect of moderating the proteins in the flour, making them more digestible. They also improve the bioavailability of minerals and vitamins in wholemeal flours.

Salt

If yeast is the accelerator in dough, then salt serves the function of the brakes. It controls the activity of the yeast, strengthens the dough structure, and of course adds essential flavour.

FAB White Sourdough

Organic sourdough so succulent you’ll be struggling to let it cool before you carve it open.

- Makes 1 large or two small loaves -

420g - organic white bread flour - 3 cups

125g - starter - ½ cup

250g - water - 1 & 1/8 cup

9g - salt - 1½ tsp

Tip: If you want to make enough mix for three large loaves, just treble the given quantities. If you mix the dough on the Monday morning, you will be able to bake your breads on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. Each day your bread will be tastier and tastier. Try for yourself!

Schedule example: Do Step 1 in the morning, let’s say Monday morning (3 minutes hands on). Then Tuesday evening, some 36 hours later, do Step 2 (1 minute hands on). Bake on Wednesday morning, straight from the fridge.

Step 1: Mixing the Ingredients

1. Using digital scales, or cups and spoons, weigh the flour and salt into a bowl and give them a stir. Use warm water (40°C-104F) and weigh it precisely. 1ml water = 1g water (1oz = 1floz). Add the water to the flour mix.

2. Take the starter out of the fridge and weigh the required amount.

Note: Ideally, the starter should look active and bubbly as on the picture below. You can additionally test it by dropping a small portion of it into some water. It should float. This means that it is sufficiently ripe and strong and is ready to use. If it is not ripe and strong then it can still be used, but remember the dough will need about two more hours or so in the fridge before it will be ready to bake. Minimum fridge time for this kind of dough is 24 hours, so if you allow between 26 and 28 hours for dough mixed with under-ripe starter, it should be fine.

It is a good idea to sample the starter occasionally to see if it tastes mild and milky, slightly tangy or very acidic. This will give you a good indication of how your bread will taste. If you like stronger flavours, allow your starter to get more acid by letting it go without a feed for longer times. If you like mild tastes, feed your starter more frequently.

3. Add the starter to the ingredients in the bowl. Mix everything well and when all the water has been absorbed, take the dough out and rock & roll it (see Basic Techniques) until the dough is smooth. Five rock & rolls will do, which takes less than a minute.

4. Check the dough temperature, using a food probe thermometer. Ideally it should be between 27°C - 80°F and 30°C - 86°F, no more. Set the dough aside to rest for ten minutes while you wash your hands, feed* your starter, and clear everything away. Do another five rock & rolls. Chafe the dough (see Basic Techniques), put it in a bowl, cover it with a plate or a plastic bag and put it on the highest shelf of the fridge. Lower parts of the fridge will be colder, higher parts will be warmer. Aim for a final dough temperature of 10°C - 50°F.

*Feeding the starter - after using the starter for this recipe you will need to replenish the remaining starter in your container with the same amount that you have used. If you bake only one loaf a week, you don’t need to keep more than 400g living in the fridge.

Step 2: Refrigerating and Rock & Rolling

1. After 24 hours minimum (ideally 36 hours), remove the dough from the fridge and take it out of the bowl. Measure your dough temperature with the temperature probe - it should be around 10°C - 50°F. If you are using a banneton, line it with rice flour (this will stop the dough from sticking to it - ordinary flour will not do it!)

2. Roll the dough up. Note that the cold dough is firmer and easier to work with. Tidy the dough up, making sure it is smooth on top and nice and tight. Cover the dough in rice flour and place it right way up in an oiled tin or upside down in your floured banneton.

3. Put the tin or the banneton in a plastic bag and back into the fridge again.

Step 3: Baking

1. After 12-14 hours, preheat the oven for 11 minutes at 240°C / 464°F - or as hot as you can get it.

2. Take the risen loaf out of the fridge and make sure it is ready for baking. First, it should have risen by at least a third of the original size. Press the dough with your finger in various places. If it feels tough and the indentations spring right back, the dough could do with a little more time to rise. If they spring half-way and the dough feels quite puffy, then the loaf is ready for baking.

3. If the loaf has been rising in a banneton or a bowl turn it out onto a baking tray. The dough should be very soft and airy to be ready for decorating and baking.

4. Decorate and score the dough as explained in Scoring and Decorating. Place in the hot oven.

5. The length of time in the oven will depend on the dough, and the size of the loaf. A large, 800g / 1lb 12oz dough weight will take 30 - 35 minutes total. Larger loaves need to be baked longer and more slowly. Half way through the bake, reduce the oven temperature to around 210°C / 410°F and turn the loaves around for even browning.

6. To judge if bread is baked, check if it is browned all over, test the crispness of the crust and finally tap on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow. Your loaf will weigh between 10% and 20% lighter when it is baked, due to evaporation. Remember that bread continues cooking for a while when it first comes out of the oven.

7. Place it on a wire rack to cool so that it doesn’t go soggy.

Note: This recipe is for 36 hour bread, but you can experiment with timings to see what type of bread you like best. Shorter times give a softer crumb and milder taste. Longer times give a more resilient crumb and a stronger taste.  You can do 48 hours, 60 hours all the way up to 96 hours or more. It is good to do the timing in 12 hour increments so that it is either morning or evening, and probably more convenient for you.

FAB Honest Brown

The easiest way to make heritage wheat part of a healthy diet.

- Makes 1 large or two small loaves -

420g - brown flour* - 3 cups

125g - starter - ½ cup

260g - water - 1 & 1/8 cup

9g - salt - 1½ tsp

*For brown flour mix half heritage wholemeal with half organic white flour.

Tip: If you want to make enough mix for three large loaves, just treble the given quantities. If you mix the dough on the Monday morning, you will be able to bake your breads on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. Each day your bread will be tastier and tastier. Try for yourself!

Schedule example: Do Step 1 in the morning, let’s say Monday morning (3 minutes hands on). Then Tuesday evening, some 36 hours later, do Step 2 (1 minute hands on). Bake on Wednesday morning, straight from the fridge.

Step 1: Mixing the Ingredients

1. Using digital scales, or cups and spoons, measure the flour and salt into a bowl and give them a stir. Use warm (40°C - 104F) water and weigh it precisely. 1ml water = 1g water (1oz = 1floz). Measure barley malt and add it to the water. Stir until the malt dissolves into the water. Add the water to the flour mix.

2. Take the starter out of the fridge and weigh the required amount.

Note: Ideally, the starter should look active and bubbly as on the picture below. You can additionally test it by dropping a small portion of it into some water. It should float. This would mean that it is sufficiently ripe and strong and is ready to use. If it is not ripe and strong, then it can still be used but remember that the dough will need two or so more hours in the fridge before it will be ready to bake.  Minimum fridge time for this kind of dough is 24 hours, so if you allow between 26 and 28 hours for dough mixed with under-ripe starter, it should be fine.

It is a good idea to sample the starter occasionally, to see if it tastes mild and milky, slightly tangy or very acidic. This will give you a good indication of how your bread will taste. If you like stronger flavours, allow your starter to get more acid by letting it go without a feed for longer times. If you like mild tastes, feed your starter more frequently.

3. Add the starter to the ingredients in the bowl. Mix everything well and when all the water has been absorbed, take the dough out and rock & roll it (see Basic Techniques) until the dough is smooth - five rock and rolls should do, which is less than a minute.

4. Check the temperature using a food probe thermometer. Ideally it should be between 27°C - 80°F and 30°C - 86°F, no more. Set the dough aside to rest for ten or so minutes while you wash your hands, feed* your starter, and clear everything away. When all is clear, do another five rock & rolls, chafe it (see Basic Techniques), place the dough inside a bowl, cover with a plate or a plastic bag and put it on the highest shelf of the fridge. Lower parts of the fridge will be colder, higher parts will be warmer. Aim for final dough temperature 10°C - 50°F, although it is fine if it is lower.

*Feeding the starter - after using the starter for this recipe you will need to replenish it with the same amount that you have used. If you bake only one loaf a week, you don’t need to keep more than 400g starter living in your fridge.

Step 2: Refrigerating and Rock & Rolling

1. After 24 hours minimum (36 hours ideal) remove the dough from the fridge and take it out of the bowl. Measure your dough temperature with the temperature probe - it should be around 10°C - 50°F. If you are using a banneton sprinkle it with rice flour (this will stop the dough from sticking to it - ordinary flour will not do it!)

2. Roll the dough up. Note that the cold dough is firmer and easier to work with. Tidy the dough up, making sure it is smooth on the top and nice and tight. Cover the dough in rice flour and place it right way up inside an oiled tin or up-side down in a banneton sprinkled inside with rice flour.

3. Place it inside a plastic bag and back into the fridge again.

Step 3: Baking

1. After 12-14 hours preheat the oven for 11 minutes at 240°C / 464°F or as much as you can get out of it.

2. Take the risen dough out of the fridge and check if it is ready for baking. First it should have risen by at least a third of the original size. Press the dough with your finger in various places. If it feels tough and the indentations spring right back, the dough could do with a little more time to rise. If they spring half-way and the dough feels quite puffy, then the dough is ready for baking.

3. If the loaf has been rising in a banneton or a bowl, turn it onto a baking tray. The dough should be very soft and airy to be ready for decorating and baking.

4. Decorate and score the dough as explained in Scoring and Decorating. Place in the hot oven.

5. The length of time in the oven will depend on the dough, and the size of the loaf. A large, 800g / 1lb 12oz dough weight will take 30 - 35 minutes total. Larger loaves need to be baked longer and more slowly. Half way through the bake reduce the temperature in the oven to around 210°C / 410°F and turn the loaves around for even browning.

6. To judge if bread is baked, check if it is browned all over, test the crispness of the crust and finally tap on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow. Your loaf will weigh between 10% and 20% lighter when it is baked, due to evaporation. Remember that bread continues cooking for a while when it first comes out of the oven.

7. Place it on a wire rack to cool so that it doesn’t go soggy.

Note: This recipe is for 36 hour bread, but you can experiment with timings to see what type of bread you like best. Shorter times give a softer crumb and milder taste. Longer times give a more resilient crumb and a stronger taste.  You can do 48 hours, 60 hours all the way up to 96 hours or more. It is good to do the timing in 12 hour increments so that it is either morning or evening, and probably more convenient for you.

FAB Malted Wheat Treat

Pass the home-made marmalade please - and lots of butter.

- Makes 1 large or two small loaves -

420g - brown flour* - 3 cups

125g - starter - ½ cup

260g - water - 1 & 1/8 cup

9g - salt - 1½ tsp

80g - malted wheat flakes - 1 cup

40g - barley malt - 2 Tbsp

*For brown flour mix half organic wholemeal brown with half organic white flour.

Tip: If you want to make enough mix for three large loaves, just treble the quantities. If you mix the dough on the Monday morning, you will be able to bake your breads on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. Each day your bread will be tastier and tastier. Try for yourself!

Schedule example: Do Step 1 in the morning, let’s say Monday morning (3 minutes hands on). Then Tuesday evening, some 36 hours later, do Step 2 (1 minute hands on). Bake on Wednesday morning, straight from the fridge.

Step 1: Mixing the Ingredients

1. Using digital scales, or cups and spoons, weigh the flour, wheat flakes, salt and bran flakes into a bowl and give them a stir. Use warm (40°C - 104F) water and weigh it precisely. 1ml water = 1g water (1oz = 1floz). Measure barley malt and add it to the water. Stir until the malt melts into the water. Add the water to the flour mix.

2. Take the starter out of the fridge and weigh the required amount.

Note: Ideally, the starter should look active and bubbly as on the picture below. You can additionally test it by dropping a small portion of it into some water. It should float. This would mean that it is sufficiently ripe and strong and is ready to use. If it is not ripe and strong, then it can still be used, but remember the dough will need about two more hours or so in the fridge before it will be ready to bake. Minimum fridge time for this kind of dough is 24 hours, so if you allow between 26 and 28 hours for dough mixed with under-ripe starter, it should be fine.

It is a good idea to sample the starter occasionally to see if it tastes mild and milky, slightly tangy or very acidic. This will give you a good indication of how your bread will taste. If you like stronger flavours, allow your starter to get more acid by letting it go without a feed for longer times. If you like mild tastes, feed your starter more frequently.

3. Measure the starter and add it to the ingredients in the bowl. Mix everything well and when all the water has been absorbed, take the dough out and rock & roll it (see Basic Techniques) until the dough is smooth - five rock and rolls should do, which is less than a minute.

4. Check the temperature using a food probe thermometer. Ideally it should be between 27°C - 80°F and 30°C - 86°F, no more. Set the dough aside to rest for ten or so minutes while you wash your hands, feed* your starter, and clear everything away. When all is clear, do another five rock & rolls, chafe it (see Basic Techniques), place the dough inside a bowl, cover with a plate or a plastic bag and put it on the highest shelf of the fridge. Lower parts of the fridge will be colder, higher parts will be warmer. Aim for a final dough temperature of 10°C - 50°F, although it is fine if it is lower.

*Feeding the starter - after using the starter for this recipe you will need to replenish it with the same amount that you have used. If you bake only one loaf a week, you don’t need to keep more than 400g starter living in your fridge.

Step 2: Refrigerating and Rock & Rolling

1. After 24 hours minimum (36 hours ideal) remove the dough from the fridge and take it out of the bowl. Measure your dough temperature with the temperature probe - it should be around 10°C - 50°F. If you are using a banneton, sprinkle it with rice flour (this will stop the dough from sticking to it - ordinary flour will not do it!)

2. Roll the dough up. Note that the cold dough is firmer and easier to work with. Tidy the dough up, making sure it is smooth on the top and nice and tight. Cover the dough in rice flour and place it right way up inside an oiled tin or up-side down in a banneton sprinkled inside with rice flour.

3. Put the tin or the banneton in a plastic bag and back into the fridge again.

Step 3: Baking

1. After 12-14 hours preheat the oven for 11 minutes at 240°C / 464°F or as hot as you can get it.

2. Take the risen dough out of the fridge and check if it is ready for baking. First, it should have risen by at least a third of the original size. Press the dough with your finger in various places. If it feels tough and the indentations spring right back, the dough could do with a little more time to rise. If they spring half-way and the dough feels quite puffy, then the dough is ready for baking.

3. If the loaf has been rising in a banneton or a bowl, turn it onto a baking tray. The dough should be very soft and airy to be ready for decorating and baking.

4. Decorate and score the dough as explained in Scoring and Decorating. Place in the hot oven.

5. The length of time in the oven will depend on the dough, and the size of the loaf. A large, 800g / 1lb 12oz dough weight will take 30 - 35 minutes total. Larger loaves need to be baked longer and more slowly. Half way through the bake, reduce the temperature in the oven to around 210°C / 410°F and turn the loaves around for even browning.

6. To judge if bread is baked, check if it is browned all over, test the crispness of the crust and finally tap on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow. Your loaf will weigh between 10% and 20% lighter when it is baked, due to evaporation. Remember that bread continues cooking for a while when it first comes out of the oven.

7. Place it on a wire rack to cool so that it doesn’t go soggy.

Note: This recipe is for 36 hour bread, but you can experiment with timings to see what type of bread you like best. Shorter times give a softer crumb and milder taste. Longer times give a more resilient crumb and a stronger taste.  You can do 48 hours, 60 hours all the way up to 96 hours or more. It is good to do the timing in 12 hour increments so that it is either morning or evening, and probably more convenient for you.

FAB Sunny Honey

Honey and sunflower seeds. True teddy bears’ picnic bread.

- Makes 1 large or two small loaves -

420g - half organic white/half wholemeal flour - 3 cups

125g - starter - ½ cup

270g - water - 1 & 1/8 cup

9g - salt - 1½ tsp

120g - mixed seeds* - 1 cup

40g - honey - 2 Tbsp

*See Adding Other Ingredients at the end of the book for how to combine your seed mix.

Tip: If you want to make enough mix for three large loaves, just treble the quantities. If you mix the dough on the Monday morning, you will be able to bake your breads on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. Each day your bread will be tastier and tastier. Try for yourself!

Schedule example: Do Step 1 in the morning, let’s say Monday morning (3 minutes hands on). Then Tuesday evening, some 36 hours later, do Step 2 (1 minute hands on). Bake on Wednesday morning, straight from the fridge.

Step 1: Mixing the Ingredients

1. Using digital scales, or cups and spoons, weigh the flour and salt into a bowl and give them a stir. Add measured seeds and honey. Use warm (40°C - 104F) water and weigh it precisely. 1ml water = 1g water (1oz = 1floz). Add the water to the flour mix.

2. Take the starter out of the fridge and weigh the required amount.

Note: Ideally, the starter should look active and bubbly as on the picture below. You can additionally test it by dropping a small portion of it into some water. It should float. This would mean that it is sufficiently ripe and strong and is ready to use. If it is not ripe and strong then it can still be used, but remember the dough will need about two more hours or so in the fridge before it will be ready to bake. Minimum fridge time for this kind of dough is 24 hours, so if you allow between 26 and 28 hours for dough mixed with under-ripe starter, it should be fine.

It is a good idea to sample the starter occasionally to see if it tastes mild and milky, slightly tangy or very acidic. This will give you a good indication of how your bread will taste. If you like stronger flavours, allow your starter to get more acid by letting it go without a feed for longer times. If you like mild tastes, feed your starter more frequently.

3. Measure the starter and add it to the ingredients in the bowl. Mix everything well and when all the water has been absorbed, take the dough out and rock & roll it (see Basic Techniques) until the dough is smooth - five rock and rolls should do, which is less than a minute.

4. Check the temperature with a food probe thermometer. Ideally it should be between 27°C - 80°F and 30°C - 86°F, no more. Set the dough aside to rest for ten or so minutes while you wash your hands, feed* your starter, and clear everything away. When all is clear, do another five rock & rolls, chafe it (see Basic Techniques), place the dough inside a bowl, cover with a plate or a plastic bag and put it on the highest shelf of the fridge. Lower parts of the fridge will be colder, higher parts will be warmer. Aim for a final dough temperature of  10°C - 50°F, although it is fine if it is lower.

*Feeding the starter - after using the starter for this recipe you will need to replenish it with the same amount that you have used. If you bake only one loaf a week, you don’t need to keep more than 400g starter living in your fridge.

Step 2: Refrigerating and Rock & Rolling

1. After 24 hours minimum (36 hours ideal) take the dough out of the fridge and out of the bowl. Measure your dough temperature with the temperature probe - it should be around 10°C - 50°F. If you are using banneton sprinkle it with rice flour (this will stop the dough from sticking to it - ordinary flour will not do it!)

2. Roll the dough into a roll. Note that the cold dough is tougher and easier to work with. Tidy the dough up making sure it is smooth on the top and nice and tight. Cover the dough in rice flour and place it right way up inside an oiled tin or up-side down in a banneton sprinkled inside with rice flour.

3. Put the tin or the banneton in a plastic bag and back into the fridge again.

Step 3: Baking

1. After 12-14 hours preheat the oven for 11 minutes at 240°C / 464°F or as much as you can get out of it.

2. Take the risen dough out of the fridge and check if it is ready for baking. First it should have risen by at least a third of the original size. Press the dough with your finger in various places. If it feels tough and the indentations spring right back, the dough could do with a little more time to rise. If they spring half-way and the dough feels quite puffy, then the dough is ready for baking.

3. If the loaf has been rising in a banneton or a bowl turn it onto a baking tray. The dough should be very soft and airy to be ready for decorating and baking.

4. Decorate and score the dough as explained in Scoring and Decorating. Place in the hot oven.

5. The length of time in the oven will depend on the dough, and the size of the loaf. A large, 800g / 1lb 12oz dough weight will take 30 - 35 minutes total. Larger loaves need to be baked longer and more slowly. Half way through the bake reduce the temperature in the oven to around 210°C / 410°F and turn the loaves around for even browning.

6. To judge if bread is baked, check if it is browned all over, test the crispness of the crust and finally tap on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow. Your loaf will weigh between 10% and 20% lighter when it is baked, due to evaporation. Remember that bread continues cooking for a while when it first comes out of the oven.

7. Place it on a wire rack to cool so that it doesn’t go soggy.

Note: This recipe is for 36 hour bread, but you can experiment with timings to see what type of bread you like best. Shorter times give a softer crumb and milder taste. Longer times give a more resilient crumb and a stronger taste.  You can do 48 hours, 60 hours all the way up to 96 hours or more. It is good to do the timing in 12 hour increments so that it is either morning or evening, and probably more convenient for you.

FAB Smokey Jo

Blink and you’ll miss it - this super savoury lunch loaf goes that fast.

- Makes one large or two small loaves -

420g - organic white flour - 3 cups

125g - starter - ½ cup

250g - water - 1 & 1/8 cup

9g - salt - 1½ tsp

100g - olives - ¾ cup

60g - sundried tomato pesto - 2 Tbsp

3g - smoked paprika - 1 tsp

Tip: If you want to make enough mix for three large loaves, just treble the quantities. If you mix the dough on the Monday morning, you will be able to bake your breads on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. Each day your bread will be tastier and tastier. Try for yourself!

Schedule example: Do Step 1 in the morning, let’s say Monday morning (3 minutes hands on). Then Tuesday evening, some 36 hours later, do Step 2 (1 minute hands on). Bake on Wednesday morning, straight from the fridge.

Step 1: Mixing the Ingredients

1. Using digital scales, or cups and spoons, weigh the flour, salt, paprika, pesto and olives into a bowl and give them a stir with a wooden spoon. Use warm (40°C - 104F) water and weigh it precisely. 1ml water = 1g water (1oz = 1floz). Add the water to the flour mix.

2. Take the starter out of the fridge and weigh the required amount.

Note: Ideally, the starter should look active and bubbly as on the picture below. You can additionally test it by dropping a small portion of it into some water. It should float. This would mean that it is sufficiently ripe and strong and is ready to use. If it is not ripe and strong then it can still be used, but remember the dough will need about two more hours or so in the fridge before it will be ready to bake. Minimum fridge time for this kind of dough is 24 hours, so if you allow between 26 and 28 hours for dough mixed with under-ripe starter, it should be fine.

It is a good idea to sample the starter occasionally to see if it tastes mild and milky, slightly tangy or very acidic. This will give you a good indication of how your bread will taste. If you like stronger flavours, allow your starter to get more acid by letting it go without a feed for longer times. If you like mild tastes, feed your starter more frequently.

3. Measure the starter and add it to the ingredients in the bowl. Mix everything well and when all the water has been absorbed, take the dough out and rock & roll it (see Basic Techniques) until the dough is smooth - five rock and rolls should do, which is less than a minute.

4. Check the temperature with a food probe thermometer. Ideally, it should be between 27°C - 80°F and 30°C - 86°F, no more. Set the dough aside to rest for ten or so minutes while you wash your hands, feed* your starter, and clear everything away. When all is clear, do another five rock & rolls, chafe it (see Basic Techniques), place the dough inside a bowl, cover with a plate or a plastic bag and put it on the highest shelf of the fridge. Lower parts of the fridge will be colder, higher parts will be warmer. Aim for a final dough temperature of 10°C - 50°F although it is fine if it is lower.

*Feeding the starter - after using the starter for this recipe you will need to replenish it with the same amount that you have used. If you bake only one loaf a week, you don’t need to keep more than 400g starter living in your fridge.

Step 2: Refrigerating and Rock & Rolling

1. After 24 hours minimum (36 hours ideal) take the dough out of the fridge and out of the bowl. Measure your dough temperature with the temperature probe - it should be around 10°C - 50°F. If you are using banneton sprinkle it with rice flour (this will stop the dough from sticking to it - ordinary flour will not do it!)

2. Roll the dough into a roll. Note that the cold dough is tougher and easier to work with. Tidy the dough up making sure it is smooth on the top and nice and tight. Cover the dough in rice flour and place it right way up inside an oiled tin or upside down in a banneton sprinkled inside with rice flour.

3. Put the tin or the banneton in a plastic bag and back into the fridge again.

Step 3: Baking

1. After 12-14 hours preheat the oven for 11 minutes at 240°C / 464°F or as much as you can get out of it.

2. Take the risen dough out of the fridge and check if it is ready for baking. First it should have risen by at least a third of the original size. Press the dough with your finger in various places. If it feels tough and the indentations spring right back, the dough could do with a little more time to rise. If they spring half-way and the dough feels quite puffy, then the dough is ready for baking.

3. If the loaf has been rising in a banneton or a bowl turn it onto a baking tray. The dough should be very soft and airy to be ready for decorating and baking.

4. Decorate and score the dough as explained in Scoring and Decorating. Place in the hot oven.

5. The length of time in the oven will depend on the dough, and the size of the loaf. A large, 800g / 1lb 12oz dough weight will take 30 - 35 minutes total. Larger loaves need to be baked longer and more slowly. Half way through the bake, reduce the temperature to around 210°C / 410°F and turn the loaves around for even browning.

6. To judge if bread is baked, check if it is browned all over, test the crispness of the crust and finally tap on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow. Your loaf will weigh between 10% and 20% lighter when it is baked, due to evaporation. Remember that bread continues cooking for a while when it first comes out of the oven.

7. Place it on a wire rack to cool so that it doesn’t go soggy.

Note: This recipe is for 36 hour bread, but you can experiment with timings to see what type of bread you like best. Shorter times give a softer crumb and milder taste. Longer times give a more resilient crumb and a stronger taste.  You can do 48 hours, 60 hours all the way up to 96 hours or more. It is good to do the timing in 12 hour increments so that it is either morning or evening, and probably more convenient for you.

FAB Rustic Walnut

Fragrant, nutritious, rich and fairly dense, this loaf is packed with character.

- Makes one large or two small loaves -

140g - 1 cup each of organic rye, wholemeal and white flours

125g - starter - ½ cup

270g - water - 1 & 1/8  cups

9g - salt - 1½ tsp

40g - malted barley (optional) - 2 Tbsp

15g - sesame oil - 1 Tbsp

100g - crushed walnuts - 1 cup

Tip: If you want to make enough mix for three large loaves, just treble the quantities. If you mix the dough on the Monday morning, you will be able to bake your breads on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. Each day your bread will be tastier and tastier. Try for yourself!

Schedule example: Do Step 1 in the morning, let’s say Monday morning (3 minutes hands on). Then Tuesday evening, some 36 hours later, do Step 2 (1 minute hands on). Bake on Wednesday morning, straight from the fridge.

Step 1: Mixing the Ingredients

1. Using digital scales, or cups and spoons, weigh the flour, salt and sesame oil into a bowl and give them a stir. Use warm (40°C - 104F) water and weigh it precisely. 1ml water = 1g water (1oz = 1floz). Measure the barley malt into the water, if using, and stir to dissolve, then add to the flour mix.

2. Take the starter out of the fridge and weigh the required amount.

Note: Ideally, the starter should look active and bubbly as on the picture below. You can additionally test it by dropping a small portion of it into some water. It should float. This would mean that it is sufficiently ripe and strong and is ready to use. If it is not ripe and strong then it can still be used, but remember the dough will need about two more hours or so in the fridge before it will be ready to bake. Minimum fridge time for this kind of dough is 24 hours, so if you allow between 26 and 28 hours for dough mixed with under-ripe starter, it should be fine.

It is a good idea to sample the starter occasionally to see if it tastes mild and milky, slightly tangy or very acidic. This will give you a good indication of how your bread will taste. If you like stronger flavours, allow your starter to get more acid by letting it go without a feed for longer times. If you like mild tastes, feed your starter more frequently.

3. Add the starter to the ingredients in the bowl. Mix everything well and when all the water has been absorbed, take the dough out and rock & roll it (see Basic Techniques) until the dough is smooth. After the first two or three rock & rolls, add the walnuts, spreading them onto the flattened dough, then continuing for another two or three rock & rolls, to ensure even distribution.

4. Check the dough temperature with a food probe thermometer. Ideally it should be between 27°C - 80°F and 30°C - 86°F, no more. Set the dough aside to rest for ten or so minutes while you wash your hands, feed* your starter, and clear everything away. When all is clear, do another five rock & rolls, chafe the dough (see Basic Techniques), place it in a bowl, cover with a plate or a plastic bag and put it on the highest shelf of the fridge. Lower parts of the fridge will be colder, higher parts will be warmer. Aim for a final dough temperature of 10°C - 50°F.

*Feeding the starter - after using the starter for this recipe you will need to replenish it with the same amount that you have used. If you bake only one loaf a week, you don’t need to keep more than 400g starter living in your fridge.

Step 2: Refrigerating and Rock & Rolling

1. After 24 hours minimum (ideally 36 hours) remove the dough from the fridge and take it out of the bowl. Measure your dough temperature with the temperature probe - it should be around 10°C - 50°F. If you are using a banneton, sprinkle it with rice flour (this will stop the dough from sticking to it - ordinary flour will not do it!)

2. Roll the dough up. Note that the cold dough is firmer and easier to work with. Tidy the dough up, making sure it is smooth on the top and nice and tight. Cover the dough in rice flour and place it right way up inside an oiled tin or upside down in a banneton sprinkled inside with rice flour.

3. Put the tin or the banneton in a plastic bag and back into the fridge again.

Step 3: Baking

1. After 12-14 hours preheat the oven for 11 minutes at 240°C / 464°F or as hot as you can get it.

2. Take the risen dough out of the fridge and check if it is ready for baking. First, it should have risen by at least a third of the original size. Press the dough with your finger in various places. If it feels tough and the indentations spring right back, the dough could do with a little more time to rise. If they spring half-way and the dough feels quite puffy, then the dough is ready for baking.

3. If the loaf has been rising in a banneton or a bowl, turn it onto a baking tray. The dough should be very soft and airy to be ready for decorating and baking.

4. Decorate and score the dough as explained in Scoring and Decorating. Place in the hot oven.

5. The length of time in the oven will depend on the dough, and the size of the loaf. A large, 800g / 1lb 12oz dough weight will take 30 - 35 minutes total. Larger loaves need to be baked longer and more slowly. Half way through the bake reduce the temperature in the oven to around 210°C / 410°F and turn the loaves around for even browning.

6. To judge if bread is baked, check if it is browned all over, test the crispness of the crust and finally tap on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow. Your loaf will weigh between 10% and 20% lighter when it is baked, due to evaporation. Remember that bread continues cooking for a while when it first comes out of the oven.

7. Place it on a wire rack to cool so that it doesn’t go soggy.

Note: This recipe is for 36 hour bread, but you can experiment with timings to see what type of bread you like best. Shorter times give a softer crumb and milder taste. Longer times give a more resilient crumb and a stronger taste.  You can do 48 hours, 60 hours all the way up to 96 hours or more. It is good to do the timing in 12 hour increments so that it is either morning or evening, and probably more convenient for you.

FAB Cheese Ploughman’s

Perfect after a morning hiking the hills - crusty, tasty, custom-built for great door-steps.

- Makes one large or two small loaves -

420g - organic white flour - 3 cups

125g - starter -  ½ cup

260g - dark ale or stout* - 1 & 1/8 cup

8g - salt - 1½ tsp

115g - grated cheese** - 1 cup

*Choose your favourite beer. Guinness gives great extra taste.

**We use mature cheddar - Gruyère or Monterrey Jack work well too.

Tip: If you want to make enough mix for three large loaves, just treble the quantities. If you mix the dough on the Monday morning, you will be able to bake your breads on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. Each day your bread will be tastier and tastier. Try for yourself!

Schedule example: Do Step 1 in the morning, let’s say Monday morning (3 minutes hands on). Then Tuesday evening, some 36 hours later, do Step 2 (1 minute hands on). Bake on Wednesday morning, straight from the fridge.

Step 1: Mixing the Ingredients

1. Using digital scales, or cups and teaspoons, weigh the flour, grated cheese and salt into a bowl and give them a stir. Use warm (35° - 95F) Guinness and weigh it precisely. 1ml Guinness = 1g Guinness (1oz = 1floz).

2. Take the starter out of the fridge and weigh the required amount.

Note: Ideally, the starter should look active and bubbly as on the picture below. You can additionally test it by dropping a small portion of it into some water. It should float. This would mean that it is sufficiently ripe and strong and is ready to use. If it is not ripe and strong then it can still be used, but remember the dough will need about two more hours or so in the fridge before it will be ready to bake. Minimum fridge time for this kind of dough is 24 hours, so if you allow between 26 and 28 hours for dough mixed with under-ripe starter, it should be fine.

It is a good idea to sample the starter occasionally to see if it tastes mild and milky, slightly tangy or very acidic. This will give you a good indication of how your bread will taste. If you like stronger flavours, allow your starter to get more acid by letting it go without a feed for longer times. If you like mild tastes, feed your starter more frequently.

3.Add the starter to the ingredients in the bowl. Mix everything well and when all the water has been absorbed, take the dough out and rock & roll it (see Basic Techniques) until the dough is smooth - five rock and rolls should do, which is less than a minute.

4. Check the temperature using a food probe thermometer. Ideally, it should be between 27°C - 80°F and 30°C - 86°F, no more. Set the dough aside to rest for ten or so minutes while you wash your hands, feed* your starter, and clear everything away. When all is clear, do another five rock & rolls, chafe it (see Basic Techniques), place the dough inside a bowl, cover with a plate or a plastic bag and put it on the highest shelf of the fridge. Lower parts of the fridge will be colder, higher parts will be warmer. Aim for a final dough temperature of 10°C - 50°F.

*Feeding the starter - after using the starter for this recipe you will need to replenish it with the same amount that you have used. If you bake only one loaf a week, you don’t need to keep more than 400g starter living in your fridge.

Step 2: Refrigerating and Rock & Rolling

1. After 24 hours minimum (36 hours ideal) remove the dough from the fridge and take it out of the bowl. Measure your dough temperature with the temperature probe - it should be around 10°C - 50°F. If you are using a banneton, sprinkle it with rice flour (this will stop the dough from sticking to it - ordinary flour will not do it!)

2. Roll the dough up. Note that the cold dough is firmer and easier to work with. Tidy the dough up, making sure it is smooth on the top and nice and tight. Cover the dough in rice flour and place it right way up inside an oiled tin or upside down in a banneton sprinkled inside with rice flour.

3. Put the tin or the banneton in a plastic bag and back into the fridge again.

Step 3: Baking

1. After 12-14 hours preheat the oven for 11 minutes at 240°C / 464°F or as hot as you can get it.

2. Take the risen dough out of the fridge and check if it is ready for baking. First it should have risen by at least a third of the original size. Press the dough with your finger in various places. If it feels tough and the indentations spring right back, the dough could do with a little more time to rise. If they spring half-way and the dough feels quite puffy, then the dough is ready for baking.

3. If the loaf has been rising in a banneton or a bowl, turn it onto a baking tray. The dough should be very soft and airy to be ready for decorating and baking.

4. Decorate and score the dough as explained in Scoring and Decorating. Place in the hot oven.

5. The length of time in the oven will depend on the dough, and the size of the loaf. A large, 800g / 1lb 12oz dough weight will take 30 - 35 minutes total. Larger loaves need to be baked longer and more slowly. Half way through the bake reduce the temperature in the oven to around 210°C / 410°F and turn the loaves around for even browning.

6. To judge if bread is baked, check if it is browned all over, test the crispness of the crust and finally tap on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow. Your loaf will weigh between 10% and 20% lighter when it is baked, due to evaporation. Remember that bread continues cooking for a while when it first comes out of the oven.

7. Place it on a wire rack to cool so that it doesn’t go soggy.

Note: This recipe is for 36 hour bread, but you can experiment with timings to see what type of bread you like best. Shorter times give a softer crumb and milder taste. Longer times give a more resilient crumb and a stronger taste.  You can do 48 hours, 60 hours all the way up to 96 hours or more. It is good to do the timing in 12 hour increments so that it is either morning or evening, and probably more convenient for you.

Essential Tips

Life in a mixing bowl (and how to control it!)

Combining your four ingredients, flour, water, salt and starter produces a variety of powerful reactions. The moment the ingredients are mixed together, the process of fermentation starts.

Out of flour, starch sugars are produced. Yeast eats the sugars and produces bubbles of carbon dioxide. Gluten strands become finer and finer until they are able to form elastic membranes strong enough to hold the bubbles inside them without bursting. Even though your dough is in the fridge and so cold it’s almost asleep, the yeasts slowly continue their job.

The final party happens in the hot oven. When the dough goes in, the heat makes the yeast wake up and work extra hard, producing more bubbles that make the dough expand. Sometimes, if you watch, you will be able to see the dough rising in the first seven or so minutes in the oven. And that is when all the life in the dough stops and the life-giving bread begins.

How to Make Bread With Holes

- The smiling sign of success: the "holey grail" -

Holes in the crumb are not essential, but they are a sign of a well-matured dough. Another sign is shiny and chewy crumb.

If you are one of the many aspiring bakers who would love to have bigger holes in your bread, here is what you will have to do in order to get them:

• Use bannetons - bread rises better in them and once the loaf is on a baking tray and in the oven it will have much more expansion space than if it was inside a tin.

• Use more water in your dough, as much as you can handle it without it losing its shape once on the baking tray. Between 75% and 80% of water in relation to flour is good.

• Give your dough more time, between 24 and 72 hours before you finally rock & roll it and let it rise for 12 hours before baking.

• Make sure when you do your final rock & roll (just before the final 12 hour rise) to shape the dough nice and tightly.

• Check if the dough is ready by pressing it with your finger as explained in the 3 Steps.

• When you transfer the dough from the banneton to the baking tray, do it gently so as not to knock the gas out of it.

• When you score the loaf, make sure your main cut is about 3cm deep - 1".

• Your oven should be about 240°C - 464°F - use a baking stone and preheat the oven for at least half an hour before baking.

• So long as your oven can take some steam, tip some water on the bottom when you put the loaf in.

If you follow those instructions you will get your wonderful ‘holey’ bread. Fill those holes with butter and enjoy.

Achieving Better Taste

• The taste is probably the most important thing to cultivate when making bread, and simply put, the longer the rising time, the more taste will be developed. The optimal temperature for fermenting the dough for our FAB method here starts with 27°C / 80°F and after a while in the fridge it should settle at the optimal 10°C / 50°F.

• By reducing the dough temperature in our fridge method, we allow a much longer time for the dough to develop. Using the fridge method also adds time flexibility to your bread making so that you can fit it into your busy life.

• Slower loaves (anything from 24 to 96 hours rising time) will have chewier texture, better looks and a longer shelf life. The longer time allows the sugars to develop further, creating a more crispy crust.

Better Crumb, Texture and Size

• The longer the dough has to develop, the better the crumb texture and the volume of the bread will be.

• Rock & Rolling helps strengthen and organise the network of gluten strands in the dough. This network is responsible for holding the gases produced by the yeast, and thus maintaining the volume - i.e. no bursting bubbles.

• Salt will make for chewier crumb. The amount of salt in your recipe will influence the quality of your crumb (2% of total flour weight is ideal).

Better Crust

• Sugars present in flour and malt, combined with salt, will give the crust colour and crunchiness. Some flours are richer in natural sugars and even white bread made from those flours will be quite dark in appearance.

• Time: The longer the fermentation time, the more sugars will be created on the surface of the dough and the darker the finished loaf will be.

• Salt helps make crunchy crusts. The amount of salt in your recipe will influence the quality of your crust.

• High baking temperatures and steam in the oven will give depth and crispness to the crust.

• Different finishes - flour, seeds, egg wash, honey or oil all produce different crust characteristics. Experiment to see what works best for you.

Better Shape

• Once you have perfected the shaping of your loaf, you will need to control what happens to it in the oven, when the heat produces a final burst of energy from the dough and, ideally, ‘oven spring’ - the extra rise you get from a well-proven loaf.

• A very important aspect of shape, crust and crumb control is Rock & Rolling, Chafing and Scoring (see Basic Techniques.) Rock & Rolling organises gluten strands while scoring has the function of directing the energies left within the mature and proven dough, and avoiding random, clumsy bursts or bulges of dough.

• For crusty, chewy breads, hotter and faster baking is better than cooler and slower baking.

• The main reason for bread splitting is that it probably had too little time rising and it was still too tight inside. Also, it could be that the scoring cuts were not deep enough.

• If a loaf is under-baked it will still be soggy inside, if it is over-baked it will be too dry in its crumb and crust and it will have a shorter shelf life.

• Steaming makes loaves grow bigger and makes crunchier crust. We do not recommend this method in the domestic ovens that are not made to cope with too much steam.

Controlling Speed

Raising the dough or fermentation is all about increasing the volume of the dough and increasing its acid levels to improve the flavour, without necessarily making it a sourdough. Mastering fermentation is the key skill in bread-making as it determines the look, taste and keeping qualities of the loaf. Fermentation gives the yeast, enzymes and bacteria time to do their best work. They will produce carbon dioxide, various acids and alcohol, strengthen the gluten strands, and add gas to the dough and character to its taste.

There are two ways to control the speed of rising dough.

1. The amount of raising agent (instant yeast or natural starter) will have a big effect. Because we ferment our dough for such a long time in the fridge, we only use a fraction of the normal amount of yeast.

2. Retarding the dough is one of the best ways to control the rise of the dough and its fermentation. If the temperature is lower than our FAB method optimum of 27°C - 80°F then the fermentation will slow down.

The lower the temperature, the longer the fermentation time will be. Retardation can produce excellent results as, while it slows down the action of the yeast, it gives the enzymes and bacteria more time to mature. Its disadvantage is that if you leave the dough too long to ferment, the protease enzyme will start to break down the precious gluten strands (your dough’s muscle), the dough will become soggy and impossible to shape and so the volume of your loaf will suffer. In simple terms you may have a brick and not bread on your hands.

Fermentation tip:

Over-fermentation means your final loaf will not have so much volume. When the dough is baked, the crust will brown faster due to sugars caramelizing too quickly and the scores will not open properly.

If fermentation is too short, the dough will not be aerated properly, it will lack strength, the baked colour will be dull and again, the scores will not open well.

Steaming

If your oven can take it, you can put a tray of water in the bottom to create steam. This results in:

• better volume

• crisper, thicker crust

• better overall look (no unseemly bursts)

• better crumb

The steam will create a hot and humid environment for your loaf (in domestic ovens mainly at the top of the oven). The humidity coats the loaf with moisture and stops the crust from hardening before the loaf can complete its expansion. The steam helps the gelatinization of starches in the crust, creating extra sugars on the surface and a crisp and golden crust.

Warning: We do not recommend this method for domestic ovens as they are not built to handle too much steam. If you do use steam it is entirely at your own discretion.

Storing

Storing bread is a tricky business.

A plastic container with a lid partially covering it is the best way we have found to store our breads.

Sourdough breads, due to acids in the starter, last better than ordinary breads. They will easily last up to five or six days.

Most bread is best eaten the day it is baked and regular baking is better than resorting to factory breads full of fungicide etc, but for emergencies / convenience, all the recipes given here freeze well.

Bread also keeps well in linen or unsealed plastic bags, although the crust stays crisper if you store it in paper bags. After that - there is a lot to be said for the glories of buttered toast or French toast.

Proving

Proving is the final rise of the shaped loaf. For FAB loaves, it takes from 12 to 16 hours to properly prove a loaf in a fridge. To test, press the dough gently and if it feel soft with no resistance or tension left in it, then it is definitely ready for baking.

If the loaf has been over-proved, there will be excessive gas production, and the small bubbles of air will start to join up, forming hollow channels that undermine the gluten structure and again, your loaf will collapse.

It is better to put an under-proved loaf in the oven than an over-proved one, but in either case you must pay special attention to the scoring part of the finishing process.

Water & Hydration

Hydration is also vital in controlling fermentation.

Wetter doughs develop the gluten network well, have airy crumb as they rise better. They will be tastier too.

The dryer doughs rise at a slower rate. However, dryer doughs tend to develop a more acid taste than wetter doughs. Also dryer doughs tend to have tougher gluten structure and therefore denser crumb.

Adding Other Ingredients to Basic Dough

Oils

Adding oils, butter or cheese to your recipes adds taste and softens the gluten (especially good if the flour is of a strong variety). You can add anything from 1% to 15%, but 5% is the most common.

Oil will add extra moisture to the dough so be aware if you are making your own recipe to reduce the water by roughly the same amount as the amount of oil you are adding.

Vegetables

The main thing to watch when adding vegetables is the water content. Potatoes will be relatively dry, while carrots, or beetroots or mushrooms will be rich in water.

If you’re making your own recipes, the general rule of the thumb is to reduce the water by around 5% in relation to the flour.

Butter

Butter softens the dough and is as wet as oils are so if making your recipes with butter reduce the water content. You can add upto 50% of butter in relation to the total of flour in your recipe.

Cheese

Cheese is oily and so it softens the dough. You can add upto 100% of cheese to your recipes.

Seeds

For added flavour, texture and goodness we add seeds to our breads. They can be soaked prior to mixing and kneading the dough. Soaking the seeds brings the flavour out, makes them more digestible, stops them from stealing water away from your dough and softens them up so that they don’t pierce the air bubbles within the dough.

If you want to soak the seeds, choose up to 4 types of seeds. Put the seeds into a bowl, pour water over your mix, stir and cover. Soak in hot water for a minimum of 2 hours or in cold water for up to 16 hours.

If you’re making your own recipes with soaked seeds, the general rule is to reduce the water content in the dough by around 5% in relation to the flour. With toasted seeds, increase the water content in the dough by 5% in relation to the flour.

Seed Varieties

These are some of the seeds that you can combine according to taste:

Flax/Linseed Seeds

Sunflower Seeds

Sesame Seeds

Rolled Oats

Black Onion Seeds

Poppy Seeds

Pumpkin Seeds

Millet

Instead of soaking, you may want to lightly roast your seeds for that nutty toasted taste.

When decorating with seeds, beat an egg and brush the surface of the dough with it and then sprinkle the surface with a one or several types of seeds.

For many more ideas of what to add and in what proportions to your bread dough, please check our book:

‘A Million and One Original Recipes’

Thank you for purchasing this book!

If you enjoyed this book and would like to share your experience of reading it, please leave your feedback.

Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Last Note

Happy Baking!

Other Books by The Artisan Bakery School

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Faster Artisan Breads

This book dispels the myth that great bread is time consuming or difficult to make. We believe our FAB (Faster Artisan Breads) method is probably the fastest and most straightforward-ever way of making authentic artisan breads without a sourdough leaven, based on the professional technique of retardation. In just three simple steps, it delivers all the taste and nutritional virtues of slow food, and is faithful to centuries-old baking principles, but takes only a few minutes hands-on.

Suitable for beginners and advanced bakers alike, this book shows you:

* The 3 simple steps to outstanding bread

* How to make ‘slo-mo’dough by using the fridge.

* How to fit a simple baking schedule into the busiest life

* How to improve the taste and texture of your bread

* How to mix one batch of dough and bake fresh bread every day for a week

Contains:

* Fabulous, foolproof bread recipes

* Step-by-step colour photographs and clear explanations

* Great tips on how to improve the look, taste and texture of your loaves

* Insights into the three Ts: timing, temperature and technique

* Advice on creating your own recipes

A survival guide for even the busiest bread-lovers.

Gluten-Free, Gourmet Friendly Breads

How to make the kind of gourmet-fabulous breads that everyone at your table will want to share, from soft sandwich loaves to crispy baguettes to rich, spiced breads or cashew nut sourdough. Pizzas for parties, fougasse for sharing, pitta for filling, and little socca nibbles to enjoy as snacks, are all artisanal creations from the richly rewarding world of naturally gluten-free baking.

* Create your own custom flour blends to get exactly the artisan breads you’ve always wanted.

* Learn how to make your loaves rise in a variety of ways, including using your own wild yeast leaven.

* Discover a wide variety of naturally gluten-free flours milled from beans, grains, nuts and vegetable starches.

* Learn which natural seeds and plant fibres can create elastic, chewy crumb, without chemicals or additives.

* Get practical tips on buying, storing and even milling your own flours.

* Be inspired and equipped to experiment with new breads of your own.

The truly foodie approach to naturally gluten-free breads.

Building a Wood Fired Oven in a Day

Short and sweet, this book is for anyone who’s dreamed of baking bread or pizza in their own outdoors woodfired oven, but always lacked the space, the skills to build one or the funds to buy one.

The Mini Wood Fired Oven costs less than a £100 to build. Its footprint is just one meter square, it is fantastically simple to make, and you don’t have to make room to store it in your shed when the first frost comes.

Inspired by an ancient Croatian baking method, Dragan built the Mini Wood Fired Oven in our garden at The Artisan Bakery School in just one day. It makes a beautifully versatile alternative to the full-size wood fired oven we use to bake breads and make pizzas for the village.

* Takes 1 hour to reach baking temperature

* Requires very little wood

* Lends fabulous, smokey character to food

* Can be used for breads, pizzas, baked spuds, casseroles and even barbecued food

* Building a Wood Fired Oven in a Day includes full plans,dimensions, photographs, lists of materials and tools, step-by-step building instructions, and explanations on how to best use your oven.

A Million and One Original Bread Recipes

There are more potential recipes for brilliant breads than there are games of chess or atoms in the known universe!

This breakthrough book from The Artisan Bakery School not only shows you how to make great breads, but how to successfully develop original recipes of your own.

* Make authentic artisan breads following our simple Seven Steps, fully illustrated with tips and techniques for improving the taste and looks of your loaves.

* Learn proportions for incorporating 100 different nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, herbs and spices etc.

* Successfully combine ingredients to balance flavours and textures

* Choose the right flours for different loaves

* Create stunning original recipes of your own

* Including over 50 recipe suggestions developed by The Artisan Bakery School plus details of our seven star performers.

An inspiration for adventurous bakers of any level!

Artisan Bread for Beginners

Artisan bread is often sourdough, but beginners can achieve equally impressive results without using a sourdough culture. The secret is in a process called retardation – or ‘slo-mo’dough. This book shows you how to use your fridge so you can fit baking authentic artisan bread into even the most hectic lifestyle.

It includes:

* Our proven Seven Steps method for reliable results every time

* Illustrations of all the steps, backed up with clear explanations

* Insights into the three Ts: timing, temperature and technique

* Tips on improving the look, taste and texture of your loaves.

* Ideas for using fruits, nuts and seeds to create an impressive selection of wonderful, original breads

* Original recipes developed by The Artisan Bakery School

A handbook for anyone reaching for a real life-skill.

Perfect Pizza

Friday nights are pizza nights at The Artisan Bakery School, where we sell wood fired pizzas for locals to take away. Our experience of making, shaping and baking great pizza, and teaching these skills to our students, is now available in this short, fully illustrated handbook for budding pizzaristas.

Discover:

* The Seven Steps to making the perfect pizza dough

* How to manage refrigeration so your dough will wait for you, not the other way around

* Techniques for shaping your dough into perfect circles without a rolling pin

* Tips for creating your own signature sauce

* Hints on how best to dress your pizza

* The secrets of the tarte flambée

* How to get the very best out of your home gas or electric oven, for crispy crust and delectably tender dough

A handbook for anyone reaching for a real life-skill.

Baking Low Gluten & Heritage Breads

As the tide of people suffering with sensitivities to modern wheat and gluten continues to rise, the need for a fresh approach to baking bread is obvious.

Through clear text and pictures, this book shows you how to bake beautiful, nutritious artisan loaves using low gluten and heritage flours and a natural, wild yeast leaven. The Artisan Bakery School’s Seven Steps method makes the baking ultra simple, while the gourmet recipes will inspire you to show off to your friends.

Learn:

* Why heritage flours are better for your body

* How to make a range of rich and characterful breads in seven easy steps

* How to make and manage consistently healthy wild yeast starters

* Tips for improving the looks, taste and texture of every bread you bake

* How to choose, source and combine various heritage flours

* To control the three Ts: timing, temperature, technique

* The best ways to use seeds

If you care about what you eat, this book is for you!

The Microbakery Blueprint

This book is a practical guide to turning your bread-making into a successful microbakery business. Focusing on Dragan and Penny’s start-up bakery in the tiniest house in Oxford, UK, and going on to the success of The Artisan Bakery School in Devon, The Microbakery Business Blueprint gives all the nitty-gritty details of running a baking business from home.

* The local legal requirements: Environmental Health, licences etc.

* How to start trading with minimum initial investment – just one oven!

* Getting a handle on finances, branding and marketing

* How to cost and price your breads

* Business development and the importance of growing organically

* Setting a baking schedule to match your stamina

If you like the idea of being able to manage your own time, earning a living ethically and contributing to your local community, this book is for you.

For details on how to make good bread, see the Artisan Bakery School companion volumes: Artisan Bread for Beginners or Baking Real Sourdough Bread, A Million and One Original Bread Recipes and Baking Low Gluten Sourdough Bread.

The Micropizzeria Blueprint

The Micropizzeria Blueprint, and its companion volume Perfect Pizza, are the most recent books from The Artisan Bakery School. Together, they show how almost “anyone with a kitchen and a phone” can learn to be a pizzarista, and run a takeaway pizza business from home, or from a mobile pizza van. Practical advice includes:

* Compliance with local legal requirements

* The basics of finances, branding and marketing

* Choosing and using your oven: wood fired or professional stone-baker

* Costing initial outlay on equipment

* Planning your work area

* Costing and pricing your pizzas

* Lists of equipment and suppliers

Having built a wood fired oven, Dragan and Penny now sell takeaway pizza from The Artisan Bakery School every week and it’s becoming increasingly popular. Properly made pizza is certainly ‘fast’ food, but it can also be healthy, exciting, ethically produced and a runaway success for you too. This book shows you how!

About The Artisan Bakery School

The Artisan Bakery School is devoted to outstanding real breads and pizzas.

Run by Penny and Dragan at their 200-year old cottage in rural Devon, England, the School also serves the village of Sparkwell as a bakery / pizzeria. We have baked bread for our local gastronomic restaurant, ran by the winner of the UK Masterchef 2012, Anton Piotrowsky.

We are passionate about passing on the basic life-skill of baking real bread to as many people as possible; for their health, for their happiness, and because it’s great fun! We have taught students of every age from 3 to 83, from all over the world and every walk of life. We were also one of the first schools in the country to offer a Microbakery / Micropizzeria Business courses.

Our special interests are in heritage flours and heirloom techniques, including baking in a real wood fired oven, or using the ancient Croatian method of baking ‘under the bell’.

Dragan and Penny also run Pendragan Publishing and are authors of a number of fictional books.

We’d love to hear from you!

Our Baking Books on Amazon

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bakers@theartisanbakeryschool.com

To find out more about our one-day and residential courses, our woodfired pizza parties or our workshops-on-wheels, please visit:

www.theartisanbakeryschool.com

About Dragan

Dragan’s story

“My fascination with breadmaking was born of necessity in the mid seventies, when I first arrived in this country. The bread in England then was, and still largely is, fast to produce and chemically induced. No wonder that today we have such a huge number of people suffering from bread allergies.

Coming from a macho culture, barely able to fry an egg, I was forced to learn how to bake a decent loaf, just to survive.

But my really passionate quest for the perfect loaf began later on in my life. Wanting to learn absolutely everything about what makes dough work, I picked up tips from master bakers everywhere, as well as trying one thousand and one ways of making bread.

The answer was to ditch everything but the essentials (good flour, clean water, salt and yeast) and give it all plenty of time.

Today, to make my perfect loaf, I prefer to use heritage flours (or gluten free flour), coupled with the time-honoured method of long fermentation, which makes delicious and beautiful breads that are also good for health.

I use mainly sourdough retardation method because it is dead easy (15 minutes hands on) and produces the best tasting loaves. My dough takes between 12 and 144 hours to develop and each loaf is carefully hand-crafted. That’s why I call my loaves ‘artisan’.

My greatest pleasure is when people come to us saying that they can eat bread again, because properly fermented dough is easy to digest. Or our students telling us that after the course with us they have never bought another loaf of bread again!”

Apart from baking Dragan does magic shows for all ages and writes books for children.

About Penny

Penny was fortunate enough to have a mother and two grandmothers who were all great cooks, and happy to have their kids in the kitchen. The teaching came almost by osmosis.

As a three-year old Penny remembers coming in from the garden to poke a curious, muddy finger into a mesmerising pillow of white dough rising in a bowl and squeaking with guilty alarm at the grubby dent she had made. To her astonishment, the dent disappeared, just as her laughing mother said it would. Penny’s lifelong passion for creating good food made it natural for her to bake bread, but it wasn’t until she met Dragan that she really developed those skills.

The Rise of Real Bread Conference in 2009 was her first encounter with the artisan bakers, millers, farmers, scientists, ecologists, writers and activists that are fighting for a better loaf on Britain’s tables. It was a watershed moment.

Penny says “We can only change the way people bake and think about bread one person at a time. But if we do it often enough, for long enough, we will contribute to positive change. That’s our reason for being.

But the most fun part of The Artisan Bakery School is running the weekend courses. It’s all about making people feel at home, preparing something special for them at every meal, gathering round the table, or round the fire, enjoying a glass of wine and telling stories after dinner. You wouldn’t believe how many amazing tales our bakers have to tell!”

Apart from being a baker Penny is a professional copywriter and an author of a number of fictional books, both for children and adults.

Services

Dragan and Penny offer workshops and Skype consultations, at a fee, on any aspect of the book.

We also do book editing, translation and copywriting services.

Contact Us

bakers@theartisanbakeryschool.com

www.theartisanbakeryschool.com

Useful Links

Here are some you tube links that will help you to understand the key technique of folding, pre-shaping and shaping the bread dough.

Also some tips on decorating and cutting.

Dividing and pre-shaping

Main bread-shaping techniques

Wet dough shaping

Shaping a round loaf

Shaping and cutting a batard

Shaping a batard

Great cuts!

Using stencils to decorate bread

Table of Contents

Faster Artisan Breads II: Sourdough

Table of Contents

Faster Artisan Breads (FABs) Using Sourdough Culture

Why Sourdough?

Important Starting Tips

The Three Simple Steps to FAB Sourdough

Sourdough Magic – the Starter

Creating a Sourdough Starter

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Using and Maintaining the Starter

Basic Techniques

Rock & Rolling

Chafing

Decorating

Scoring

Basic Tools

Natural Bread Recipes

Basic Bread Ingredients

FAB White Sourdough

FAB Honest Brown

FAB Malted Wheat Treat

FAB Sunny Honey

FAB Smokey Jo

FAB Rustic Walnut

FAB Cheese Ploughman's

Essential Tips

How to Make Bread With Holes

Achieving Better Taste

Better Crumb, Texture and Size

Better Crust

Better Shape

Controlling Speed

Steaming

Storing

Proving

Water & Hydration

Adding Other Ingredients to Basic Dough

Thank you for purchasing this book!

Last Note

Other Books by The Artisan Bakery School

Faster Artisan Breads

Gluten-Free, Gourmet Friendly Breads

Building a Wood Fired Oven in a Day

A Million and One Original Bread Recipes

Artisan Bread for Beginners

Perfect Pizza

Baking Low Gluten & Heritage Breads

The Microbakery Blueprint

The Micropizzeria Blueprint

About The Artisan Bakery School

Contact Us

About Dragan

About Penny

Services

Useful Links