• On the day you wish to bake take the bags of dough out of the fridge and place onto your bench for an hour or so to allow them to come to room temperature. You only need the dough to come to room temperature, but I have found that if I allow it to rest for up to 3 hours I get a good rise out of them in the oven
  
  

STEP 5: STRETCH AND FOLD DOUGH

• Sprinkle your bench with flour, remove your first dough from the bag (turn the bag upside down and the dough should drop out if you oiled it correctly).
• Stretch and fold your dough 4 to 8 times until the dough becomes taut (this movement strengthens the gluten in the dough).
• NB: If you used spelt flour for your dough, do this step twice, allowing the dough to rest for 5 minutes between each step (spelt flour contains a large amount of gluten - up to 15% - however the type of gluten producing protein it contains differs from that of wheat, as it is more soluble and fragile than wheat gluten and therefore doesn’t provide the same strength or flexibility for a bake as wheat flour, so by working your dough twice to develop the gluten you will get a nicer shape in your baked loaf).
• Working with one dough at a time you now move on to Step 6 with the dough you are currently handling.
  
  

STEP 6: SHAPE THE DOUGH

• After you stretch and fold the dough you need to shape the loaf for your tin or Banneton (if using a Banneton, flour it very well with wholemeal flour, rice flour or fine semolina otherwise the dough will stick to it when trying to remove it).
• To shape the dough bring the dough into a rough round shape by folding the edges into the middle
• Turn dough over so that the folds are under it giving you a smooth top surface
• Use both hands to turn the dough around tightening the top surface as you go by running your hands down the sides of the dough and under as your turn so that you create a firm and taught top surface ... this will give you a nice finish to your loaf.
• Pick up dough with one hand and place into your bread tin, then continue with the next dough until done (with a Banneton you place the dough taught side facing down into the Banneton, and the rough side facing up ... when you turn it out for baking the smooth side will be facing upwards).
  
  

STEP 7: RISING THE DOUGH

• Place your tins or Banneton into your chosen container, cover, and allow dough to rise to the top of the tin, or double in size if in a Banneton
• You want the dough to double in volume, but you don’t want it to over-rise otherwise it can “run out of gas” and flatten, so when it is in a tin and slightly touches the inside lid of the plastic container it is ready for baking
• NB: when you see it nearing the top of the tin, before it slightly touched the inside of the plastic lid, lightly spray the dough with water so that it doesn't stick to the plastic lid itself ... if it does just slowly lift the lid so that you don't damage the look of the smooth surface of the dough
  
  

STEP 8: SPRAY AND BAKE (IF USING BAKING TINS)

• Preheat oven to 235 degrees fan forced (this can take a little while so start this as soon as you think the dough is nearly ready – it takes about 20 minutes in my oven), and place rack second shelf from the bottom of the oven
• If you wish to slash the tops of your loaves, the time to do this is just before baking ... by doing this you will help the bread to rise in the oven with a natural rounded "shape", otherwise it can tend to rupture the bread's surface in its effort to rise and you may get an uneven top-shaped loaf
• To score the bread use a lame (a baker's bread cutting tool), or a razor blade fashioned onto a chop stick (details in post "Equipment I use") ... if you wish to use a knife it will need to be really sharp otherwise it can drag across the dough pulling it out of shape
• When ready to bake spray dough generously with a fine mist of water, lightly score the tops of your loaves and place into the oven
• Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 225 degrees and bake for a further 20 minutes
• Remove loaves from oven, turn bread out of baking tins straight onto cooling racks (they should just pop out if using Mackies tins … be careful as tins and bread are hot), and allow to cool completely before cutting or storing.
  
  

STEP 8: SPRAY AND BAKE (IF USING BANNETON)

• NB: unless you have a double oven, you can only bake one free form loaf at a time / I also don't like using a Dutch Oven because I find them quite dangerous to use and I worry about people burning themselves ... so for this exercise I am using a good quality baking tray that can take high heat
• Preheat oven to 235 degrees fan forced (this can take a little while so start this as soon as you think the dough is nearly ready – it takes about 20 minutes in my oven), and place rack second shelf from the bottom of the oven
• If you wish to slash the top of your loaf, the time to do this is just before baking ... by doing this you will help the bread to rise in the oven with a natural rounded "shape", otherwise it can tend to rupture the bread's surface in its effort to rise and you may get an uneven top-shaped loaf
• To score the bread use a lame (a baker's bread cutting tool), or a razor blade fashioned onto a chop stick (details in post "Equipment I use") ... if you wish to use a knife it will need to be really sharp otherwise it can drag across the dough pulling it out of shape
• When ready to bake, place a piece of baking paper onto a good quality baking tray
• Take your Banneton, turn it upside down and tap it with a single firm tap on top of the baking paper lined tray so that the dough falls out ... if you floured the Banneton well it should just fall out
• Spray dough generously with a fine mist of water, lightly score the top of your loaf and place into the oven and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 225 degrees and bake for a further 20 minutes
• Remove loaf from oven, and place onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before cutting or storing.