"Miracle Overnight White Loaf" from Kitty and Al Tait's book "Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives." Photo by Mark Lord

Miracle Overnight White Loaf is excerpted from "Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives" by Kitty and Al Tait.

This was the first bread recipe I learnt to bake, and how the simple ingredients transform into a loaf still feels like magic. All you need to make a loaf twice as tasty as anything on the supermarket shelf, with a crunchy crust and pillowy crumb, is a casserole dish with a lid and an oven that can get up to 230°C/210°C fan/gas 8. At the beginning our oven could only reach 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4, so even if yours is lacking oomph then your breadmaking is not doomed. If you make only a single recipe from this entire book, this one will probably give you the biggest thrill. It’s truly a miracle. INGREDIENTS Makes 1 loaf

1. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt and yeast. Stir everything together using either a sturdy spoon or my personal favourite your hands. Bit by bit gently mix in the lukewarm water until a shaggy dough forms. We call this the Scooby dough in homage to Scooby Doo.

2. Place a damp tea towel or shower cap over the rim of the bowl and leave in a cosy draught free place to prove for hours, overnight is best. Like the fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a carriage time transforms your scrappy, dull dough into a bubbly, live creature of its own although I think I’d prefer the pumpkin over the carriage. 

3. Once your dough has risen and is bubbling away, tip it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Remember it’s alive so the greater respect you show the dough with gentle handling, the more it will reward you and the better your loaf will come out.  Gently shape the dough into a ball a well-floured plastic dough scraper really helps here making sure there is a light coating of flour all over.

4. Place the shaped dough on a sheet of parchment paper cover with a damp tea towel and set aside in a warm, cosy place to rest for 1 hour. 

5. Halfway through the resting time, preheat the oven to 230oC /210oC fan/gas 9 or as high as it will go. Put a large cast iron casserole dish with a lid and a heatproof handle into the hot oven for 30minutes to heat up.

6. Once the casserole dish is good and hot, carefully take it out of the oven and lift off the lit. Uncover the dough and, using the parchment paper, lift and then lower the dough into the heated casserole dish. Using a sharp knife, razor blade or scissors, score the top of the dough with slashes in any pattern you like, one long slash, a cross, a square or even a smiley face. You might want to invest in a baker’s lame for this, basically a razor blade in a stick and cheap as chips but, alongside your dough scraper, a good friend.

7. Pour a couple of tablespoons of water inside the casserole around the dough, replace the lid and put the dish back in the hot oven. Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid to reveal your magnificent loaf and then continue to bake uncovered for a further 10 minutes to get a nice, golden crust or 15 minutes if you like your loaf a bit darker. I do.

8. Place the loaf on a wire rack and leave to cool for at least 30 minutes. This is the hardest part, but it’s also the most important as the bread keeps cooking after you take it out of the oven. If you listen carefully, you might even hear the loaf sing, this is the ‘breadsong’. Just don’t scorch your ear… You’ve just made bread. No mess, though I always find a way. No kneading. Just magic. And a little fermentation. 

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