I woke up on Thursday morning, up out of bed… Did I get in the shower? Oh no. I went to go feed Pauline, ready for some Sourdough bread making action when I got home from work!

The first thing I realised when I got home was that perhaps she needs a bigger pot…. While I had been at work, she had been growing and bubbling until when I opened the lid…. Out flowed bubbly yeastiness. Hmmm. At least she’s happy.

I assembled my kit…

Weighed out all my ingredients into a bowl…

Mixed them together using my dough scraper….

Then I tipped it onto my nicely cleaned worktop, and kneaded it for 10 minutes (I thought I should probably try and do this properly, first time around at least! Next time I will probably get out the Kitchenaid!), then back into the bowl…

Then you can either cling film the top, or properly FBB style, utilise a shower cap liberated from an obliging hotel room just for this purpose 😉 , cover the bowl, and leave to relax in a warm place for half an hour.

Then, I shaped it into my loaf, and put it in it’s basket to prove overnight (slowly does it).

Bright and early the next morning, oven on to 230C…. Check on the loaf:

Looking promising….

It has risen above the proving basket!

When the oven is at temperature (or as near to temperature as I could get without it making me late for work…..) empty the basket onto the preheated baking stone, and make the cuts across the top…

Yeah….. this would be where I almost lost my loaf off the edge! Eeek! I poked it back on with my scraper, taking care not to touch the hot stone. Note: I should have also at this point sprayed it with some water for a nice sheen… I forgot….

Bake for 30 minutes…..

Done. A little bit got stuck, which was the part that had tried to leap for freedom off the edge of the stone, but otherwise it looks ok just a little “browned” on the ends! Alas, I didn’t get to try it however as it was time to go to work. I shall update as to whether it tastes ok when I get home!

And of course next time I’ll ace it! 😉

p.s. it tasted really nice!