Thanks go to our neighbour Rachel for this one. Normally, you need to get a ‘biga’ or a 'levain' going to make sourdough bread; this involves a week of ambient fermentation of flour and water, with little or no yeast involved at all. This recipe, however, is half way between standard bread and a sourdough; it has a superb bready flavour, a lovely chewy crumb, and a fantastic crust. It also toasts beautifully (try it with Eggs Florentine), and, if you slice it first, freezes well. Making this lovely bread is not for the faint hearted. The first time Nik made it he got very cross indeed with the soft sticky dough sticking to his hands, his wedding ring and the table, and very nearly gave up! You will need a bread scraper, a good quality, very clean tea towel, a steel bowl, yards of cling film and a silicon baking sheet. A fine water spray will help too.

500g strong bread flour plus extra for kneading

5g dried yeast

10g salt

a little ground nut oil

• The night before you are going to make the loaf, mix 250g of the flour with the yeast, then whisk in 325ml warm water to form a thick batter. Wrap the bowl in cling film and leave in the kitchen - not in the fridge - to ferment overnight

• Next day add the other 250g of flour and 10g fine sea salt, stir it in well with a spoon, then turn out onto a well floured surface, flour your hands very well and start kneading. The dough will seem very sticky indeed, but please persevere, flouring your board as much as is necessary as you knead for 10 minutes, folding and turning, folding and turning, scraping it off the table with a knife or bread scraper, till you have a smooth, stretchy dough

• Lightly oil a large bowl with some groundnut oil, then put the dough in it, rolling it about till it has a light coating of oil all over. Wrap the bowl in cling film, and leave in the kitchen to rise until the dough has doubled in size. This will take about an hour

• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for a mere 30 seconds. Wash and dry the bowl, then line it with your clean tea towel, and dust the towel lightly with flour. Place the dough in the bowl, on the floury towel, and wrap the bowl in cling film. This time, it’ll need to sit somewhere warm, like in an airing cupboard, or on a chair beside a radiator

• When it has nearly doubled in size, put a baking tray with a silicon sheet on it in the oven, and turn it up to 250°C. If you haven’t got a gardener’s spray, this is the time, once the oven is up to temperature, to put a baking dish full of boiling water on the bottom of the oven to create a steamy atmosphere in the oven. Then take the hot baking tray out of the oven, lightly flour the silicon sheet, then carefully tip the dough out onto the middle of the sheet, slash the top two or three times with a very sharp knife, and put it in the oven. If you do have a gardeners spray, mist the oven and the loaf, making sure some steam rises, the close the oven for 15 minutes

• After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 200°C, give the oven another spray, and bake the bread for a further 25 minutes. Take the tray out, and rap on the underside of the loaf with your knuckles; if it sounds hollow, it’s done, otherwise put it back in the oven for another 4 minutes. Once it’s done, leave to cool completely on a wire rack before you give in to temptation