Baking sourdough in the oven that wasn't

I decided that I'd treat myself to an oven as a little January present to myself. With a million different ovens on the market research is more complicated than you'd think. There are just so many opinions and options out there. I decided to go with the Which? best buy oven as it was a sensible price and I knew I wouldn't be going too far wrong.

On Tuesday night I got home later after dinner with a friend and a glass of red wine to the good, logged onto the John Lewis website, clicked purchase and selected Saturday as a delivery option. Job done I headed to bed.

I decided that I wanted to bake a loaf as sourdough to christen the new oven. On Friday night I mixed my sponge following the River Cottage method.

The new oven doesn't come with a plug or electrical cable (no idea why) so on Saturday morning I pulled out the old oven and took off the back so I could remove the cabling and swap it onto the new oven when it arrived. And then I waited...

.....and waited. After lots of muttering about John Lewis' delivery service I decided to give them a call. Checking the order confirmation I realised I'd selected next Saturday. Never drink wine and order an oven on the same nigt. What an idiot......

The old oven was re-wired and connected back up. And then I baked!

I've only been baking semi-sourdough since getting back to the UK and this was my first loaf of full sourdough and it turned out really well. There was lots of oven spring and the bread has a great texture. I'd prefer a slightly thicker crust, but hopefully the new oven will help with that.