This recipe is a doddle, and makes very lovely bread, which is superb for bacon sarnies on a Sunday morning. So far we’ve tried doing it as a plain loaf (right) and a cheese and parsley one (left). The milk powder is optional, by the way, but it does give the bread a lovely rich, silky 'mouthfeel'. You will need either non stick silicone sheets or parchment paper (we use the former which is how it is described in the following recipe) . Good flour is, of course, vitally important. For this recipe, we've used Alimonti Bio Wheat Flour Type “00”, Bacheldre Organic Stoneground Strong Unbleached White Flour or Leckford Estate Strong White Bread Flour and while they all worked a treat, the Bacheldre one pips the other two. We've also made it with a 50-50 mixture of the Bacheldre and Leckford flours, and it is superb, a lovely blonde coloured balance between the light texture of the Leckford, and the great flavour of the Bacheldre.

20g fresh yeast or 15g fast action dried yeast

25g butter

3 tsp salt

10g sugar

700g strong white flour

1 tbsp powdered milk (optional, see above)

• Mix the yeast with 150ml of lukewarm water until it’s completely dissolved

• Put 150ml boiling water into a heatproof measuring jug, and add the butter, sugar and salt, stirring until they’re dissolved and melted. To the jug add 150ml cold water, stir, then add the yeasty water too

• Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the milk powder and stir in, then make a well in the centre. Pour in about half the liquid, and stir till it’s a loose dough, then add the remainder, continuing to stir. When all the flour and liquid has combined, turn it out onto a floury surface, cover with a teatowel and leave it to rest for 5 minutes

• Uncover, dust with a little flour, and knead for 10 minutes, folding and turning, folding and turning, till you have a smooth, stretchy dough

• Put the dough in a bowl and cover tightly with clingfilm. Leave it in a warm place (we put it on a stool beside the radiator in the kitchen)

• When it has doubled in size (this takes between 45 and 120 minutes, depending on the warmth of your kitchen), tip it out onto your floury surface, and knead for about 3 minutes, until it’s back to the smaller size – this is also the time when you can knead in 30g of grated cheddar and 30g of grated parmesan and a tablespoon of finely chopped parsley. Cover, and leave on the surface for 10 minutes.

• Cut the dough in half, and shape into two loaves, or one loaf and six rolls, or 12 rolls. Place them on silicon sheets on one big or two smaller trays, and leave for another 30 minutes in a warm place – it will rise again. Heat your oven to 250C. Then brush with a little water (this helps to make it nice and crusty), sprinkle with poppy and/or sesame seeds if you fancy, and bake in the oven for 25 to 45 minutes. The test for whether it’s cooked or not is to take it out and knock the underside with your knuckles, if it makes no real noise it’s not done and should go back in immediately, if it makes a hollow knocking noise, it’s done.

• When fully baked, place it on a wire rack to cool for a good 15 to 20 minutes before giving in to temptation