Stir the flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl.

Stir in enough water to create a rough, wet dough (see photo in blog image for how it should look).

Cover the bowl and leave at room temperature overnight or 12-14 hours.

Tip: in warm weather, or to slow things down, put the dough in the fridge.

The dough should be well risen, spread out, and very bubbly: if not then leave for longer.

Cut a piece of baking paper to line a large baking tray: the paper should be large enough to come up above the sides.

Tip: to ensure your loaves will fit in the tin, it's helpful to take a pencil and mark on the paper an outline of the base.

Put the paper on a board or tray: this will assist in lifting the soft, uncooked loaves.

Flour the paper very well, then scrape the dough from the bowl onto it.

Sprinkle more flour over the top.

Use a dough scraper to push the dough into a rectangle approximately 20 x 25 cm with one of the long sides facing you.

Use the dough scraper to lift the long side and fold it over towards the middle. Keep pushing it over so that the dough is rolled into a tube.

Dust the paper with more flour if needed, then cut the tube into 2 shorter pieces.

Place the pieces apart on the paper.

Cover, then leave for 30 minutes or until the depression left by a finger pressed into the dough slowly rather than quickly springs back. If it springs back immediately then leave to prove for longer.

While the dough is proving

Preheat your oven to 240C / 220 Fan / Gas 9.

Position a shelf just above the middle of the oven and place the large baking tray on it. If you have a tin or tray that will fit over the top as a lid then preheat that too.

Put a deep roasting tin on the bottom shelf (this will later be filled with water to create steam).

Gently stretch one of the dough pieces to approximately 28 cm in length (use a dough scraper to nudge it off the paper first if necessary). Make sure you don't stretch it longer than your baking tray!

Repeat with the other piece of dough.

Take the preheated tray out of the oven.

Pick up the board and slide the paper and dough off it and onto the tray.

Put the tray on the middle shelf of the oven (if you've preheated a tray or tin to use as a lid, place that over the top first.)

Pour cold water into the heated roasting tray on the bottom shelf of the oven to half fill it.

Close the door and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 220C / 200 Fan / Gas 7.

Open the oven door carefully, keeping your face away: lots of steam is likely to rush out!

If you used a tray or tin as a lid, remove it.

Remove the roasting tin containing the water.

Shut the door and bake for a further 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove the baking tray with the bread, take the loaves off the tray and the paper then return them to the oven, directly on the shelf.

Continue baking until dark golden brown and sounding hollow when tapped underneath (3-5 min).

Leave to cool on a wire rack before serving.

Best eaten on the day of baking or can be frozen.