Autolyse - Premixing The Dough: Weigh out your sourdough starter and water into a large ceramic or glass bowl. Mix the water and starter together briefly. Then add your flour and salt and mix whole lot together to form a shaggy dough. Cover your bowl with a plastic bowl cover or damp dish towel and let it sit for around 1 hour.

Forming Up The Dough: After the dough has been through autolyse, bring it together into a ball. Work your way around the bowl, grabbing the dough from the outside, stretching it up and over itself, into the centre, until a smooth ball is formed. Allow it to rest for around 30 minutes.

Stretch & Fold - Creating Structure: Over the next few hours, create some structure for your dough by 'stretching and folding'. Aim to do around 4-6 sets of stretches and folds.

Bulk Ferment: Once you've finished your stretch and folds, place the plastic bowl cover or damp tea towel back over your dough and let it rest and ferment.

Shaping The Dough: Once your dough has finished its first ferment, shape it into either a boule or a batard and place it into your banneton smooth side down.

Cold Ferment: Cover the dough loosely and place into the refrigerator for a minimum of 5 hours up to a maximum of around 36 hours.

Preparing To Bake: Preheat your oven to 230C/450F. Place your Dutch Oven into the oven when you turn it on.

Let's Bake Your Sourdough Bread: When your oven is at temperature, take your sourdough out of the fridge. Gently place it onto a piece of parchment paper. Score your bread and place it into the hot oven.

Finishing The Bake: When you remove your dough from the oven, carefully remove it from the dutch oven as soon as possible and place on a wire rack to cool.