Sorry for the long gap in my postings but I discovered shortly after my last posting that I had throat cancer.  That has now been treated with radiotherapy (which left me fairly low) but in the meantime the cancer spread to both my lungs. I am now undergoing immunotherapy treatment on those, which is not nearly as bad as the radiotherapy and even has about a 50% chance of success so my fingers are firmly crossed.

I have now resumed baking bread and experimenting with autolysis and have ended up with the following as my final method for baking in the Lekue:

Ingredients

400g strong white bread flour

250ml filtered water at room temperature

100ml sourdough starter at room temperature

a pinch of salt (if required)

Method

Mix the water and sourdough starter.

Put the flour in a mixing bowl and gently mix the water and sourdough starter into the flour, then cover with a tea towel and leave to autolyze for 30 minutes.

If required, add the salt dissolved in a little water.

Knead the dough until a nice gluten structure is formed (around 5 minutes).

Return to the mixing bowl, cover and leave to ferment overnight in a cool place.

In the morning, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knock the dough back, then stretch and fold, then finaly shape and place in the Lekue.

Put the Lekue in a cold oven and bake at 220^oC, 180^oC fan, 425^oF or gas mark 7  for 25 minutes.

Remove the loaf from the Lekue and bake for another 20 minutes or until goden.

Turn the oven off and leave the loaf in the cooling oven for 5 minutes with the oven door open, then place on a rack to cool.

We had the bread (still slightly warm) with lunch and it tasted so much better than the sourdough bread we had been buying, even without salt added.

I did not take pictures for this post as the process and results were all as per the previous post.