After the excesses of the last weeks (cake! bun! more cake!) I thought I’d give you a break and preach sourdough instead. Especially as it is Real Bread Week, an annual celebration of real bread run by the charity Sustain. Their aim is to get people to take their bread more seriously, either by becoming a more discerning shopper or by learning to make their own bread. I’m all for it, as you could have guessed – especially the bit where you get to make your own bread!

I’ve talked you through making your own starter, using wheat, or, for the more daring baker, using rye and wild yeast. From then on it’s up to you whether to stick to my easy formula or try out something more challenging, such as baguettes. Personally, after all those cakes and dumplings I felt like a break from wheat, which explains my use of rye flour and oats for this loaf.

If you have never made bread before or feel a bit worried about sourdough, let me assure you it is incredibly easy. Check out my no-nonsense sourdough bread.Once you got the idea, varying your flour types is easy: sticking with my formula you will need to adjust the amount of water to create a wet but firm dough. Because I used oats, the following recipe needed quite a lot of water – simply keep adding small amounts until you get it right.

Whether you use a wheat-based levain or a rye starter is really up to you (I used a mix of the two, simply because I didn’t have enough). I didn’t leave much time for the bread to rise, leaving it to rise for around 2 hours in a banneton until it had doubled in size. To get a prettier, airier crumb you might want to rest it overnight in the fridge, ready to bake the bread for breakfast.

Either way, the result is a light and nutty-flavoured loaf, and one that – hopefully – will get you experimenting!

Wholewheat, Rye and Oat Bread (makes 1 loaf)

• 1 cup strong white bread flour
• 1 cup wholewheat bread flour
• 1 cup rye flour
• 1 cup coarse porridge oats
• 1 cup levain
• 1 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1 tsp dried active yeast
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Dilute the yeast in 1 cup of water; after a few minutes it will start bubbling. Knead in all the remaining ingredients until it all comes nicely together, adding the remaining 1/2 cup of water if necessary: you want the dough to be fairly sticky and wet, but not runny.

Cover the ball and let it rest for about 2-3 hours or until it has roughly doubled in size. This is called the first ‘proofing’.

When your dough is ready, knock it back by kneading it a little, then form it into any shape you fancy. Cover and rest for an hour or two, until it has roughly doubled in size again. That’s your second proofing, in case you were wondering. If you want to create a lighter texture and a more pronounced sourdough taste, leave the bread to rest in the fridge overnight: this will get the yeasts working, to great effect.

Heat the oven to 250C / 480F. For best results, bake your bread in a large cast-iron casserole pot, like a Dutch oven, which you heat up inside the oven, as you would your baking stone or sheet: they need to be well hot before you place your bread in or on it! Once they’re all piping hot, remove the pot or sheet and place your bread on it. Now ‘score’ it, which means you cut along the bread where you would like it to expand:

Use a sharp serrated knife for it and cut at an angle, as if lifting a flap: this will help the bread opening in a nice flap. I went for a very basic shape and cut, but check out my more arty efforts here or here.

Close the lid (if using the pot) and place the bread in the oven. If you’re using a stone or a baking sheet, throw 1/2 cup of water onto the sides of the oven before closing the door. Reduce the heat to 230C / 440F and bake the bread for 45-50 minutes. It is done when the bottom of the bread sounds hollow when you tap it.

Remove the bread from the oven to cool – remove the lid of your pot at this stage, otherwise it’ll get all soggy. 

If you liked it, why not add buckwheat or spelt the next time? Or use granary flour? The possibilities are endless…

Happy Real Bread Week!