National homemade bread day
A personal story of sourdough, slow baking and the simple pleasure of making bread from scratch.
It starts with flour, water, salt and time
There’s something deeply grounding about baking your own bread. The sound of the crust cracking as it cools, the scent filling the kitchen — and that first slice, still warm, spread with butter, sooooo good!
For me, homemade bread has long been a small act of joy but it was during the Covid lockdowns that it truly became part of my routine. With time to slow down and experiment, I learned to make sourdough, that wonderfully unpredictable, living loaf that demands care, patience and practice.
Learning from the best
Like so many, I learned to make sourdough watching a YouTube video by the brilliant Jack Sturgess, the local chef and educator behind Bake With Jack. His blog and videos are a masterclass in making sourdough approachable. Jack’s philosophy is simple: great bread doesn’t need to be complicated. Just flour, water, salt, time and love.
Here’s a photo of Jack from the Haslemere Food Festival in 2015, where he was selling fresh loaves and sharing tips with a queue of eager home bakers.
I entered the picture into the 2018 Pink Lady Food Photographer competition (now called the World Food Photography Awards) where it was short-listed in the Marks & Spencer Food Adventures (British Food Festivals) category.
Sadly, it didn’t make the finalist list but I win every weekend by making my sourdough bread.
My Go-To Sourdough Recipe
(well, it’s Jack’s but I have made it my own!)
Because sourdough takes time and effort, and on Jack’s advice, I always bake two loaves at once, one for this week, one for next (in the freezer).
Ingredients (makes 2 loaves):
900g strong bread flour (I experiment here a lot but my favoured flour mix is 500g white, 300g wholemeal and 100g malted flour (seeds removed). I do mix the combinations up but always 900g in total)
620ml water (sometimes a splash of warm water in Autumn/Winter)
200g active sourdough starter
16g sea salt
That’s it. No fuss, no shortcuts. The method to mix, stretch, fold, rest and bake in a blazing hot oven is best learned straight from Jack’s brilliant sourdough for beginner’s guide.
A story told in crust and crumb
Every loaf is slightly different. Sometimes it’s picture-perfect, sometimes rustic and wild — and that’s part of its charm. As a photographer, I find bread endlessly photogenic: the scoring patterns, the golden crust, the soft open crumb. They tell a story of patience, care, and creativity.
Let’s keep the craft alive
On National Homemade Bread Day, celebrate the simple magic of baking. Whether it’s your first sourdough or your hundredth, there’s no better way to reconnect with real food.
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