Weekend of the living bread

Had a fairly successful weekend baking. Don't seem to be able to organise myself to get a sourdough starter going, but that doesn't matter too much as I've been getting some pretty good results with dried yeast for years now.

My tips:

• Wet dough - keep it as wet as possible and add tiny amounts of flour if it becomes unmanageably sticky. You can get some interesting results by keeping the dough mega wet and using a wooden spoon to beat the gluten out.
• Use the best extra strong flour you can afford.
• Use less yeast but prove for ages - 24 hours makes a better loaf with less kneading (put a wet towel over it and don't let it dry out) which won't taste of dried yeast.
• Get a massive bowl and do everything in it - I have an enormous steel bowl I got from Ikea which must be 45cm across and is big enough to mix and knead the dough in. This makes life much easier.
• Humidify your oven with a ramekin of water left in there during baking - this will allow you to bake for longer giving a deeper crust but retaining moisture in the loaf. Also, don't use the fan on your oven.
• Don't get bogged down with recipes - get used to playing with dough and understand that the only really important things are gluten and moisture, the former being a function of time and the second being achieved with good judgement.