The weekend loaf

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl with 375 ml water to form a thick, sticky dough. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave to brew for at least 12 hours (I normally make the mixture in the morning and bake the bread at night, but you could mix at night and bake the next morning). In winter I leave the mixture in our one heated room to assist in fermentation.
2. Preheat the oven to 240°C or 220°C fan-forced if you have it, and place a casserole dish in the oven to warm up.
3. Get the bread dough out of the bowl and onto a floured bench using a spatula. Dust your hands with flour and knead the dough for a few minutes, to stretch the gluten. Form into a rounded loaf, use a serrated knife to cut a cross on top of the loaf, then cover the dough with the bowl the mixture was brewed in, and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
4. Dust the now-very-hot casserole dish with flour and place the formed bread loaf in it. Dust the top of the loaf with flour, then pop the lid on and bake for 30 minutes.
5. Remove the lid and bake for a further 20 minutes. When done, remove the bread from the dish and allow to cool on a wire rack.