The short answer: mix a wet dough, leave it overnight, then bake it in a cast iron casserole heated to 230°C, 30 minutes with the lid on and 15 to 20 minutes with it off. The lid traps the steam from the dough, which is what a bakery oven does with steam injection. You get a tall loaf, an open crumb and a crackling crust, with no kneading.

Ingredients (one loaf)

• 500g strong white bread flour
• 375g cool water (375ml)
• 10g fine sea salt
• 1.5g instant yeast (about half a teaspoon)

Method

1. Mix (evening)

Stir everything together in a large bowl until there is no dry flour left. It will look shaggy and wet. That is right. Cover and leave at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours.

2. Shape (next morning)

The dough will have more than doubled and be dotted with bubbles. Tip it onto a floured worktop, fold the edges into the middle to make a rough ball, then turn it seam-side down. Put it on a sheet of baking parchment, dust with flour, cover with a tea towel and leave for one to two hours.

3. Heat the pot

Thirty minutes before baking, put the casserole and its lid into the oven and heat to 230°C (210°C fan). A properly hot pot is what makes the loaf spring up.

4. Bake

Take the pot out with good oven gloves. Lift the dough in by its parchment, slash the top with a sharp knife, put the lid on and return it to the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, until the crust is a deep chestnut brown. Under-baked bread is pale; go darker than you think.

5. Cool

Lift the loaf onto a rack and leave it for at least an hour. It is still cooking inside. Cut it too early and the crumb turns gummy.

Why a cast iron casserole works

Cast iron stores a lot of heat, so the dough hits a hot surface on all sides at once. The closed lid holds the steam the loaf gives off, which keeps the crust soft long enough for the bread to rise fully before it sets. The Season Cast Iron Casserole has a slightly domed lid to give the loaf room to rise, and walls and lid of the same thickness so heat reaches the top of the bread as well as the base. It is oven safe to 230°C, the temperature this recipe uses.

Which size

24cm or 26cm for this loaf. A 22cm pot makes a taller, narrower loaf; 28cm and up spreads it out. More on choosing: what size casserole dish do I need?

Where it goes wrong

• Flat loaf: the pot was not hot enough, or the dough over-proved in the morning. Shorten the second rise.
• Burnt base: put a baking tray on the shelf below the casserole.
• Dense crumb: the first rise was too short or the kitchen too cold. Give it longer.
• Dough sticking to the pot: always use parchment.

Questions people ask

Can you bake bread in an enamelled cast iron casserole? Yes. Preheat it empty, within its maximum oven temperature (230°C for Season casseroles), and use parchment so the enamel stays clean.

Do I need to grease the pot? No. Parchment does the job.

Can I use wholemeal flour? Swap up to a third of the white flour for wholemeal and add 20g more water.

Can I make sourdough this way? Yes. Replace the yeast with 100g of active starter and reduce the water to 325g. Our beginner's guide to sourdough covers it.

From the cooks at Season, a London cookshop since 2005. Cook like it matters.