Sourdough bread

Method

1. First make sure your starter is active. Take the mother starter out of the fridge and weigh out 75 g of it into a bowl. Add 75 g water and stir briefly. Now add 75 g flour and stir well until you have a smooth mixture. Put it in a jar with a cloth over the top, held in place with an elastic band. The starter is active once it has risen to twice its height. How quickly this happens depends on the room temperature.
2. Weigh 165 g active starter, 225 g water, 390 g flour and 11 g salt into the bowl and mix 2 min / speed 3.
3. Now knead the dough: Dough mode / 12 min.
4. Meanwhile, line the Varoma dish with damp baking paper.
5. Tip the dough into the Varoma dish. Put 500 g water in the bowl. Place the lid without the measuring cup and set the Varoma with its lid on top. 30 min / 55°C / speed 2.
6. Put the dough in a bowl and do a stretch and fold every half hour for 2 to 3 hours, until you have a supple dough that is no longer sticky.
7. Dust the worktop with flour and shape the dough into a neat ball, tightening it a little more. Put the ball in a proving basket, cover with cling film and leave it in the fridge overnight for the cold prove.
8. Preheat the oven to 220°C. If you bake the bread for the first half hour in a covered cast-iron pan, bread pan or clay baker, preheat that along with the oven.
9. Wet a piece of baking paper thoroughly and wring it out. Lay it over the risen dough in the basket. Flip the basket over and place the bread in the hot pan. Score the bread however you like. Cover with the lid of the pan and put it in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes at 220°C.
10. Take the lid off the pan and put a dish of hot water in the bottom of the oven, or use the bread steam function if your oven has one. Bake for another 30 minutes at 180°C.
11. Let the bread cool down completely before you cut into it. Enjoy.