A baking accident

Last night I baked a rye sourdough loaf, but when I turned the oven temperature down and removed the bowl of hot water (to generate steam for the first part of baking), I forgot to reset the oven timer. I only noticed about 30-40 minutes later, and jumped up suddenly, thinking it would be a block of charcoal.

But it looked salvageable, and as it cooled I tried cutting a slice and had it with orange marmalade, and it was crunchy but fine. Today I used it for sandwiches at lunch.

And wow, it was good! The rye sourdough I’ve been making has been fine, but nothing like the German rye bread I remember from my childhood. But this was much more like it! The crust was thick and chewy and tasted great. So I think this is a happy accident, and in future I might just bake my bread longer.

In other photos, I took this one of a white-faced heron the other day:

And a mushroom, sprouting in the wet weather:

Today I did my 5k run and we dodged rain showers again when heading out after lunch with Scully. We dropped in at the library and borrowed some books for reading. I found a new Asterix title which I haven’t read before, so that should be fun!