Transfer to floured banneton or a bowl lined with a tea towel (I like to use rice flour). Another option is an oiled bowl (I usually use olive oil for this). Cover with plastic and proof for 12-15 hours in the refrigerator. This is the second rise. Baking We bake nearly 30 types of bread every day – which keeps our eight different sourdough starters busy. Below are some of our favourites. Let the potatoes cool until you can handle them, then peel and puree in a blender (or mash them with a potato masher) until smooth and just a few large chunks remain. Let cool until called for during mixing.

Molnar grew up baking with his grandparents in Florida and studied Ecology at Ivy-League Dartmouth College. He initially wanted to be a fish farmer but ended up working as a trader for agricultural firm Cargill, and later in management consulting. This almost paternal feeling is shared by many of the long-serving bakers. “Our head baker treats the doughs like his babies, when he’s on holiday he calls and asks how they’re doing.” I hope this sourdough bread with roasted potato and rosemary, with its deep, rich flavor and surprisingly light texture, helps you form new food-memory connections for you and whomever you share your loaves with. Perhaps now my Dad's desire for potato bread is satiated, at least until I develop my next recipe.

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We caramelise whole cloves of garlic and fold the dough around them to create a richly perfumed loaf. Perhaps not the best choice for a first date, but otherwise a brilliant accompaniment to soups and stews - and an absolute winner when it comes to cheese on toast. I hope we continue to grow up and learn. We have almost one million transactions a month now. That’s a level of responsibility I never thought I would have. I have a glimpse from talking to world class bakers on what the next 10 to 15 years in baking could look like and it’s exciting. There’s some smart people wanting to make better bread.

But this web might not be as invisible and hidden as it might first seem. We see evidence of the intermingled connections each time we sit down to eat: “this cake reminds me of that one you made 2 years ago when…,” or “this salad reminds me of that time we were traveling through Italy and stopped in at…” In fact, I’d go out on a limb and say just about every meal I eat with my family we talk about other meals eaten, or other dishes enjoyed in the past — and it's through that traversal of the food-memory web where we are instantly, and clearly, transported to a significant time and place in our otherwise blurred history. We’re calling it Waste Bread which some people think might sound a bit odd but we think this is being honest and clear with our customers” says Roy Levy, Gail’s head baker and head of development. “It’s re-using leftover but edible bread from our own supply chain which means we know exactly what is in it and where it has come from.” One-third of the new sourdough is made of stale bread. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianFeed a sourdough starter 4-12 hours before starting the bread, ensuring it is active and bubbly. The active starter should be able to pass the float test. Take a small dollop of starter and place it in room temperature water. If it floats it is ready to make flour. In a large mixing bowl, combine warm water, flour, sourdough starter, and salt with your hands, a wooden spoon, or dough whisk. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes for the water to hydrate the flour.This process is called autolyse, which allows all the flours to become hydrated. After baking, follow my guide to storing sourdough bread to keep it fresh for the next week (or freeze for longer!). Conclusion

This is really good but you should try to make sourdough potato bread sometime, it’s delicious.” I’ve probably heard my Dad utter a version of thatfifty times to date, usually just after eating a slice of my fresh sourdough bread. Selling bread from a 30-year-old source is a potential food standards nightmare, and measures are in place to ensure a whole day’s batch can be pulled if anything goes wrong. “We had a big issue trying to explain to food safety how this culture has been alive for so long, but we didn’t want them to stop craft bakers making something that’s safe.”The mother of all breads. This is our signature loaf, made long, slow and lovingly from 15-year-old wild yeast starters. A little chewy, a little tangy, with a dark, burnished crust. We bake it in 500g and 2kg loaves. Also available at Waitrose and on Ocado. I came to London and realised there wasn’t a great food scene. There were some good restaurants but certainly not much good bread,” he explains. Score the top of the dough with a razor or lame. Place the dough on a piece of parchment paper for best results and transfer to the dutch oven. Careful it is hot. I steamed my oven in my usual way, described here in my post on how to steam your home oven for baking. Mix flour and water (reserve 100g water for the mix, later) in a bowl until all dry bits are hydrated. Cover the bowl and store it somewhere warm near the levain for 1 hour. 4. Mix – 12:30 p.m.