Cob loaf. 500g flour, 2tsp ea {yeast, salt, sugar}, 1tbsp olive oil, 1/2 cup powdered milk. 1.25 cups warm water.

Mix warm water, yeast, salt sugar and 1/4 cup flour in a jug. Leave at least 15min. Overnight if you like for a pre-ferment (it’s called a Biga, sort of sourdough-lite). Put flour, milk powder and olive oil in a stand mixer. Add fermented yeast liquid and mix with a dough hook for 10 mins. You might need to add up to 100ml more water to get a slightly sticky dough.

Oil a large bowl and turn out into bowl to rise. The dough will double or more so choose a bigger bowl than that one. Cover with cling film. Leave 1hr at least. Two wouldn’t hurt. An air fryer on 40c will speed up the rise if yours isn’t broken like mine, what the heck does “E3” mean on an Aldi air fryer, anyway?

After rising time, preheat oven to 200C while you turn the dough out onto a floured surface and fold it a few times like you know what you’re doing and as if this will make any difference. Put it in a Dutch oven (a large covered oven dish, I use an aussie cast-iron “camp oven”). If you have two Dutch ovens, go double dutch—double the quantities and make two loaves. (Le crueset enameled iron pots are good for this too). Slash the dough three or four times with a razor or your sharpest knife. You should sharpen that knife more often, eh? Sprinkle it with something. Dukkah, Sesame seeds, herbs, wotevs. I used Nigella seeds here. Leave to re-rise 15-20 min while the oven heats up.

When the oven is hot, cover and bake 20 mins. Remove cover, rotate the pot 180º and bake another 20-30 mins. Look for a hollow sound when you knock the top of the loaf, if it doesn’t look and feel divine, give it another ten.

Remove, allow to cool in pot for as long as you can resist slathering it with butter. #Recipe #StressBaking