Butter-bread

1. The night before you wish to make the bread, mix the starter dough ingredients together, cover and put in the fridge overnight. Take the butter and starter dough out of the fridge one hour before starting to make the bread, to bring it to room temperature.

2. Mix the yeast, malt extract, and water together until there are no lumps left. Then tip in the flour, salt, and butter and mix well. Mix in the starter dough mixture and knead for 10 minutes. As this is quite a wet dough it is best to this in a food processor (with the dough hook attachment), 5 minutes on a slow speed then 5 on a fast speed.

3. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface, dust with flour, cover, and leave for 30 minutes to rise. You will need quite a lo of flour for dusting as it is quite sticky. At 10 minute intervals, use your hands to punch flat the dough, stretch out and fold over the edges on themselves and turn over.


4. Grease the loaf tin. Shaking off any excess flour, form a loaf shape then put the dough in the tin. Cover and leave to rise for a further 30 minutes. After 10 minutes rising, use a very sharp knife to score a 2 cm line down the centre of the dough. This helps create a nice crust.

5. Preheat the oven to 230C. Put the bread on the middle shelf of the oven. Using the spray bottle, squirt on and around the bread to create steam. This keeps the bread moist and gives a nice crust. Bake for 45 minutes. After 15 minutes, spray again with water and turn the temperature down to 200C.

6. The bread is ready when a skewer inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean. Difficult as it may be, leave the bread to cool completely on wire rack before slicing.