Bread baking trial I

Lately I have this craving for superb artisan bread with the crispy crust and soft chewy interior. These type of breads are soo easily found in Taiwan at either Maison Kayser or Johan's. ARRRGG I miss those good old days with all kinds of foods at hand's reach!

Anyway been raising my little sourdough starter baby for a couple of weeks now. My first test recipe is the King Arthur's Rustic Sourdough Bread.

The crust did not come out as crunchy as I wanted, maybe it was the olives that I added...

Maybe what I wanted was more of a baguette feel, so I again tried one of King Arthur's Ultimate Sourdough Baguettes. I subbed 1 TBS of honey instead of the sugar.

OH YEAH! Exactly what I wanted, the crust I mean. I do not own baking stone so I just line mine on parchment paper on my oven rack. 

2 problems:

1. I am still trying to create air holes with no success yet. *sigh* Trust me, my dough is sooo slack that I can not form them into any shape but a huge slop as it sticks to everything it touches. Don't think it's my sourdough starter as the bread does raise to more than twice it's size and no, I do not flatten it as I do not even touch them after 1st rise.

2. I can't seem to get them off the baking sheet that I spray with oil :( gotta cut off the botton of my bread.