Hi

I've home baking for a little while now and I've got to a point where everything seems to be coming out've the oven the same :-)

I tried this recipe over the weekend and it's pretty typical of results I'm getting:

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/07/08/my-new-favorite-sourdough/ [1]

What I end up with is a loaf that has a hard crust and a very dense crumb, the bread seems small, using 400g dough yields a very small loaf, I get no blisters and no carmelisation.  The flavour seems nice, it's chewy but melts in your mouth.

My starter's nice and lively and easily doubles in size.

Here're what I think could be the main culprits:

1. I'm not kneading enough.  After the autolyse bit of the recipe, I try to knead this with my kitchenaid but the amount of dough means it tries to climb up the dough hook.  I think I may try kneading by hand next time.

2. I'm wondering if my oven could be too hot?  So the crust is forming too soon?  I have a neff oven which has a bread baking mode and I'm putting in a marble slab as well.  I'm wondering if that's just all too much and I should take the slab out and let the oven do it's work alone?

3. I have no steam.  I've spritzed with a spray but that just disappears very quickly.

4. I prove in floured bannetons, I'm wondering if residual flour on the outside of the bread once sprayed with water isn't helping too much and is preventing blisters and caramalisation happening?

Any hep is welcome.

Best wishes

DF