think I am on an average talented baker. I could duplicate a lot of low
hydration recipes, but had difficulties with high-hydration breads.

I tried John's Sourdough Ciabatta with German flour from soft wheat:
Weizenmehl Type 550, 11,0 % protein. The dough was tacky and stayed sloppy
after the 6th stretch and fold cycle. I had to slide the breads on a baking
sheet into the oven.

Here are the results:

http://www.zippyimages.com/files/100...ohn_550_01.jpg

http://www.zippyimages.com/files/100...ohn_550_02.jpg

For one of the next tries I used Weizenmehl Type 1050, 12,0 % protein. A
little better, but no important gluten development, the dough didn't hold
its form. No chance to get the breads into the oven without baking sheets.
The results were still disappointing:

http://www.zippyimages.com/files/100...hn_1050_01.jpg

http://www.zippyimages.com/files/100...hn_1050_02.jpg

I began to believe that I did something wrong. Last week I got Bread Flour
from King Arthur (13,3 %protein ) from hard spring wheat and I got
satisfactory results:

http://www.zippyimages.com/files/100..._KA_BF_002.jpg

http://www.zippyimages.com/files/100..._KA_BF_009.jpg

Obviously the German soft wheat flours I used before were not suited for
high hydration breads.

Ulrike Westphal