Pain de Campagne: My Midweek Bread

Pain de Campagne

This is my most recent bread: Pain de Campagne. It's not aesthetically perfect, but it was flavorful and light (all the water cooked out of it).I wanted the holes in the bread to be larger and more irregular like they used to be when I baked it at my alma mater. I will try another loaf next week or the following week. Today I have to start another country loaf from Tartine Bread (I am making one as a thank-you gift for a friend who helped me resurrect my computer last week and partook of my second, quite successful attempt at the recipe).

The main problem that I ran into with this country loaf was that it got so big. It was so big it wouldn't fit under my broth pot and the edges got slightly squished. This is probably because my shaping technique is still not good enough and I did not develop enough surface tension for the final proofing (I tried to make a boule instead of a bouton d'ore). I also added an autolyse to the recipe (only 15 minutes) to see if that might make the kneading easier (which it did), but I am worried that this essentially worked as an extension to bulk fermentation and the baker's yeast. Thoughts?

Crust

Crumb

Another attempt will be coming soon. However, this one tasted fantastic, so I shall consider it a medium-grade success.