Senior moments

Batch No.704 started off well enough. There was a little wholemeal left in the bag (some weeks past its best-before date), so I added that to the mix, topping up the white flour, water and yeast proportionately. This last also taking into account the age of the yeast suggesting that a little more power was needed. All this took the weight of dough up from the normal 5lbs 13oz to all of 6lbs 6oz.

It took its two rises in the usual way, then was popped into the oven at around 15:50. A little later, I thought it looked a bit dark. Then a bit later still, I thought it looked very dark. At which point I realised that I had set the oven to 250°C rather than 200°C, rather a big difference. Much brain work about how to adjust the temperature and cooking time in consequence. With the first move being to cut the temperature to 175°C while I thought about it.

In the end, in the knowledge that bread seems to be quite tolerant of overcooking, I cut the cooking time from 50 minutes to 40 minutes, with half the result snapped above.

Cooled, it tasted fine. No hint of charcoal about the crust either - which, to be fair, was about the colour of the crust of the rustic I buy from Olivier. Perhaps real bakers cook at a higher temperature than I do. Just a hint of settlement at the bottom of the loaf visible right. 

Part of this lower temperature being that I am a bit uncomfortable about cranking our domestic fan oven up to 250°C, right at the top of its range. The oven elements are quite dear to replace, what with call out charges and one thing and another. For which see reference 1 for the last time.

In any event, the first time I have had this particular lapse.

However, it was compounded by the game of Scrabble which took place in the margins, during which I was very conscious of various lapses of word arithmetic. I kept thinking I could place such and such a word in such and such a place, but having made some elementary mistake. Like thinking I had two 'a's when I only had one. Or shifting a consonant to one of its relatives. Or converting the desire to have some particular letter to actually having it. Or focusing on one of the words involved to the exclusion of another. With the word that I was thinking of turning out on inspection, when the tiles were half down, not quite to work. Very much the sort of thing turned up by Warren and others a long time ago and mentioned quite recently at reference 2.

All stuff which is grist to the brain's mill, but stuff which is supposed to be sorted out under the covers, without reaching consciousness or otherwise attracting attention.

Hopefully things will not get worse too quickly.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/03/zanussi-rules-again.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/12/silent-consciousness.html.