My 3rd baking and I have made an acceptable sourdough loaf - thanks to the help and advice on this site. My boules were spreading out like frisbees. Finally made the dough a lot dryer (I thought it was TOO dry) and got a reasonably structured loaf. I used mainly white with 5% rye and 5% wholemeal.
Now I need to work on making it look a bit more beautiful!
Thanks for the great advice.
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Beautiful Loaf!!!
No improvements needed that I can see.
If you really think you need to improve your shaping, then I think you will enjoy and appreciate this video:
Happy Baking M
www.youtube.com/watch
It's surprising how even a high hydration ciabatta can be tamed by shaping.
Those YouTube videos are hugely helpful in getting to understand how to do it, because it's a real skill, and an important one to master.
I think every new baker (nice looking loaf by the way!) does what you have done and reduces the hydration to make the dough easier to handle and stop it trying to imitate a pancake... but if you go that way you'll miss out on the nice open crumb which comes with higher hydration.
If the shaping skills are taking too long to acquire, you can also take another short cut for now, without drying out the dough, by baking in some sort of pot to contain the spread. If you put a lid on just for the first 15 minutes (even a lidded saucpean will work), it will steam the loaf nicely for a shiny, crisp crust.