Hi Ellen, this can be a wet dough to shape, so feel free to use some flour on your work surface and on top of the dough; just be sure to keep a clean spot to help you seal the bottom of the loaf. This blog post may help you achieve a tauter boule that can yield more oven spring, and Martin's new video is also bound to help! As far as the crisp crust goes, that sounds more like a steaming issue. If you baked your bread in a preheated Dutch oven, be sure to take the lid off after 20 minutes, and finish baking in a dry oven. 

• Reply