It’s our pleasure to help, Ashley. We had the chance to share your baking experience with a few of our seasoned bread bakers to see if we had any additional thoughts or suggestions to offer you. One baker who knows both the cold start and pre-heated oven method well pointed out that achieving distinctive slashes and high-rising ears can be more difficult using the cold start method. Not only do you have to judge how much longer the bread will rise before the oven comes to temperature, but also how deep to make the cuts and when to remove the lid to create just the right amount of steam. You might want to consider simply putting your dough into a fully pre-heated oven to reduce some of the guesswork here. Plus, the sudden blast of heat will also encourage more oven spring and thereby open up the slashes even more. She suggested that if you give this a try, err on the side of under-proofing your dough. That way the dough will have enough energy to split the scores and make a distinctively beautiful ear. We hope this helps, and happy baking! Kye@KAF

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