Home baking is great. But sometimes it goes wrong... Baking sourdough bread takes hours. My current baking method takes about 24 hours, from the first step feeding the sourdough starter up to the point where it comes hot and crusty out of the oven. So when you mess up your brand new creation in that very last step it’s not the best sensation one could feel. But failing is an unavoidable part of home baking — and sometimes even a failed loaf can taste quite good. I was trying to improve my rye, honey and hazelnut bread — this time using a higher hydration and adding no semolina to the dough. I’ve already tested these changes some weeks ago and it was really better than the first version, so it looked like a “100% guaranteed” recipe. BUT… I remembered that last time it wasn’t easy to transfer the dough into the baking pot after proofing. It was too slack (high hydration has its counterparts). So this time I decided not to use the pot and bake it on a simple steel sheet, covered by a steel bowl. That was the mistake: the hydrated dough rose more than I expected and clung to the bowl’s surface. I thought it was a complete disaster but, apart from it’s weird aspect, the loaf was pretty decent — specially the not crumbled half. Eduardo, a friend of mine whose visit was the initial motivation for this whole adventure, had the courage to prove it and seemed to like it. Apart from the bowl’s incident, I really believe this formula is better than the one I tried before, so I’m describing the details below. I just hope next time I can post better photos. --- Rye sourdough bread with hazelnuts and honey --- Flour mix: 50% rye (290g), 50% white wheat flour (290g) 80% hydration (464ml) 25% levain starter (also 80% hydrated) 115g hazelnuts 1 teaspoon of honey 2% salt (14g) Kneading: 20min in my bread machine Bulk fermentation: 8 hours at room temperature Proofing: 2 hours at room temperature Baking: 30min covered, 25min uncovered