Day 1 evening

Mix 1 tablespoon of starter, 75g of bread flour, 75g of water in a small bowl, leave out overnight covered.

Day 2 morning

The mixture should be very bubbly and if you drop a teaspoon of it in a glass of water it should float, if it doesn't at this point then best to give up, the starter wasn't ready.

Add 450g of flour and 300g of water to the starter and mix with a spoon a bit, but don't worry about making it very smooth at this point, leave it for 30-60 minutes:

Add 7g of salt and start your 'stretch and folds', this is where you pick up one edge and lift it up and fold it over on top of itself, do this 3 more times so you've done it once from each of the top, left, bottom and right:

Keep doing the 'stretch and folds' about every 30 minutes, each time you do it it should get more stretchy so you'll be able stretch it further. By about the 4th time you should start to be able to stretch it so thin you can start to see light coming through it. If it's breaking when you try to do this then just keep doing the stretches every 30 minutes until it doesn't.

Sprinkle a bit of flour, and put the dough out on the counter. If you're making more than one loaf now is the time to divide it up. Flatten each into a rough square about 25cm by 25cm using your hands. Fold it in thirds in one direction so you end up with a rectangle, roll it up along the long edge so you end up with a short fat sausage shape. If it's sticking at this point don't be tempted to add too much flour, if it's sticking to your hands try cleaning all the dough off them then leaving them wet. This is probably the hardest part to get right.

Leave it to rest for 30 minutes.

Line a colander with a tea towel and add a generous lining of flour. Now you want to try and shape the dough into a round shape, if you haven't got a dough scraper you probably want to make something out of a piece of waste plastic, the aim is to push the side of the dough underneath it to try to create some tension on the top. Once you’ve done so pick it up and flip it upside-down into your colander. If it's warm in your kitchen and you've got an active starter then you can leave it on the side for a few hours to grow around 50% in size. Alternatively leave it in the fridge overnight.

Day 2 evening or day 3 morning

Heat your oven to about 230°C, once it's getting hot dust a baking tray with flour and flip your dough onto it. You may want to try and score the top of the dough at a 45° angle to make a small slit which will open up more in the oven.

If you have a saucepan that can go in the oven you can put it upside down on top for the first 20 minutes, if not put a pan of water on a different shelf about 5 minutes before you put the dough in to create some steam. Cook it for about 40 minutes in total, turning it down to about 180°C after 20 minutes when you take the pan off the top.

You can tell if it's done by hitting it with a wooden spoon, it should sound quite hollow. The most important part is that you wait before you cut into it, as it'll still be cooking as it cools.