Throw all your ingredients into a very large bowl (try not to let the yeast touch the salt – divide up with flour)

With a spoon, mix up the dough… You may find you want to add a little more water – you’re after a wet-ish dough that sticks to everything and that you feel (only a little) bit worried might be too wet

Using a spatula, scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 15 to 20 minutes.  My technique is to hold the spatula in my right hand, knead with my left and after each squash (or couple of squashes), to gather the sticky dough back into shape with the spatula (if that makes sense?!)

I find that brown bread needs longer kneading than white bread – but 10 minutes should be OK if you are pushed for time (sometimes it doesn’t rise, but it will still taste good)

After kneading, flour the ball of dough lightly and place in the bowl, covered with a tea towel. Leave it in a warm place for an hour

It should now have risen by double – knock it back into shape and put into a lined (with greaseproof paper) loaf tin – cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise again

Pre-heat the oven to 220˚c and gently put the bread in (you might want a small oven proof dish with some water in it also in the oven – to create steam and thus a lovely crust) – 15 mins…

After the first quarter of an hour – turn the oven down to 200˚c for 35 mins by which point your loaf will be looking and smelling great

Remove from the oven and rest on a rack for a good half an hour before slicing (and hopefully rejoicing!)

This bread is perfect for lots of things – but in particular peanut butter and jam are good – and also a fat slice of smoked salmon with a squeeze of lemon and some black pepper