Country Bread

Ingredients
550g/18oz plain unbleached flour, at room temperature, and sifted
350ml/12fl oz cold water, about 8C/46F
15g/½oz fresh moist baker s yeast
15g/½oz salt
165g/5½oz Fermented Dough Starter

For the Fermented Dough Starter:
100g/4oz white unbleached flour
60ml/2¼fl oz cold water, at 22C/71.6F
5g/1/8oz fresh moist bakers yeast

Method
To make the Fermented Dough Starter:
1. Knead the flour and water in the bowl of the electric mixer at a low speed, no. 1, for 3-5 minutes. Crumble in the yeast and knead on medium speed, no. 2, for 10 minutes. Remove the bowl from the mixer, and cover with a cloth. Prove the dough for 3 hours at room temperature.
2. Break or knock back the dough by lifting it. This will remove the fermentation gases from the dough. Replace in the bowl, cover with the cloth and prove for another 3 hours for a second fermentation.
3. This fermented dough can be made one or two days in advance. If you do this, omit the second fermentation as the dough will go on fermenting slowly in the fridge.
4. When making bread with the fermented dough, the dough must be removed from the fridge at least 2 hours in advance, to allow it to prove.

1. Mixing the dough. Place the flour in the bowl of the electric mixer. Pour the water in, and start mixing on speed no. 1 for 3 minutes. Then crumble the yeast in and knead at speed no. 2 for a further 8 minutes. Add the salt and fermented dough starter and mix on the same speed for a further 5 minutes.
2. Proving the dough. Take the dough out of the bowl and shape it into a big ball on a lightly floured working surface. Cover with a cloth and leave to prove at room temperature, approximately 1 hour.
3. Divide the risen dough into 3 equal pieces for loaves - or 20 for rolls - and shape them according to personal taste (oblongs, rounds, etc.).
4. Place a cloth on a tray and lift the dough pieces onto it, separating each with a fold in the cloth so they don t stick to one another. Cover again with a cloth and prove the dough for about another 1-1½ hours, depending on room temperature. The dough will be ready when it has doubled in volume, and if, when you press the surface with your finger, it springs back.
5. The dough is now ready for baking. With a fine sieve, dust the loaves with a little extra flour.
6. Baking the bread. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 250C/500F/Gas10 or as high as your oven will go, and put a tray of boiling water at the bottom of the oven. Lightly flour a baking tray and very delicately lift the pieces of risen dough on to the tray, leaving as much space as possible in between them. Then make some very sharp incisions into the bread - four or five widthways, or one long one sideways right in the middle of the bread or rolls. Slide the tray into the preheated oven immediately after making the cuts, and bake the loaves for about 25-30 minutes and the rolls for about 8-10 minutes. Remove when the bread or rolls have beautiful golden crusts. Leave to cool for a minimum of 1 hour.