I recently attended an event which might, in future, be regarded as one of the seminal moments in the story of modern British bread-making and baking.

Not only was the open day at Matthews Cotswold Flour interesting because of all the new amazing and delicious flours the historic mill is now producing - but we attendees also learned how artisanal baking (both commercially and at an amateur level) will soon be helping to inspire new forms of environmentally friendly and sustainable farming.

As I will be writing an article about that occasion and its ramifications soon, I won’t go into detail here - suffice to say that at the event I met food blogger Elaine Boddy who wrote the successful book Whole Grain Sourdough at Home and she kindly gave me some pointers towards creating a better loaf at home. 

A mission which for me was made a little more easy because I returned from the Matthews Cotswold mills clutching five new flours launched to answer increasing demand from artisan and home bakers for great-tasting unique blends. 

The new stoneground range includes Ancient Cotswold Crunch, Heritage Bibury Barley, Malted Cotswold Rye, Cotswold Spelt and Rye and Wychwood Oat Blended Flour.

It’s all part of the company’s wise and clever drive to make the art of artisanal bread-making a lot more varied and interesting - and the new flours join Matthews’ range of over 30 different blends which basically provide a wide choice for both amateur and professional bakers.

And I came home with the complete set of these amazing flours and started making bread - with very encouraging results, even though I says so myself…

I also came home with some sourdough tips from a top UK expert Elaine Body…

As one of the nation’s great new gurus in what could be described as the Sourdough Revolution, Elaine (or foodbod-sourdough as she’s known online - ie www.foodbodsourdough.com) kindly shared a few tips with mer for making the perfect loaf using Matthews Cotswold Flour…

• Always use great flour: the flour you use to make sourdough and feed your starter with makes a huge difference to the outcome of your baking. My sourdough making really took off once I started feeding my starter with good strong white flour, as well as using it in my dough.

• Keep your starter healthy: a happy healthy starter is the key to it all. Aim to only ever keep less than 100g as your base amount and always feed all of it, don’t portion out parts to feed, or worry about ratios.

• Invest in a room thermometer: your dough’s behaviour is wholly dependant on ambient temperature, so tracking the temperature in your kitchen is an absolute key to successfully making sourdough.

• Don’t let the dough be in control: there really is no need to get up at 3am to tend to your dough, don’t let it take over or steal your sleep.