Pain de Campagne

Whilst browsing at the FreshLoaf's website, I was captivated by the lovely looking bread contributed by David.

The recipe seemed sufficiently easy to follow. Further bonus point is also being able to use my Starter - ha ha, as you can see, I'm trying to find recipes to use it especially since I've been diligently cultivating it keeping it alive.

'Super' crusty when it came out of the oven. Must confess that I was a little afraid that it may turn out like a brick *felt like it*!! Fortunately it did not.
It is also my first time using ice cubes and hot boiling water to create steam in the oven. All the while I've been using a few good swipes with the water spray as recommended by Bertinet. No harm doing both I'd guess but concern with oven door being left open for too long and also possibly crust being too crusty??? Still trying to improve my technique with this essential part of baking bread!

What can I say....good crumb with nice Q-Q texture.

M commented that this looked better (I suppose judging from colour of the crumb) than the rye bread I made earlier in the week. Well the earlier bread is 'RYE' bread, taste a little like wholemeal bread (and more dense) compared to this which contains some rye flour but only about 10%. So if you prefer white bread but still want some wholesome goodness this would be a good choice.

Both breads are good, just depends on what you want or have a greater preference for, afterall can man live on only one type of bread??? Lolz

Side note - Next time, make a deeper slash otherwise the 'bloom' will not be that obvious. Whist baking, the bread continued to rise and ballooned out like a puff ball!! With your mouth closed, puff it to the max with air - that is how the bread baked in the oven - good exercise for the cheeks huh? *grin*