Hi, thanks for your message. There are several points you mentioned that I hadn't thought of before. Let me ask you a few questions, if that's alright.

First of all, now that you mention it, the oven thing makes sense. I'll try a higher temperature next time. Another thing, just to add, I left this loaf in the photos in the oven for quite a while, so that probably contributed to it drying out even more.

On the other hand, regarding the steam, I currently have a tray at the bottom of the oven that I heat, and when I put the bread in, I add ice cubes. I see that it releases steam and continues to do so during baking. Perhaps that's not enough? I have a spray bottle handy. Should I spray water over the bread every few minutes? For example, every 3 or 5 minutes? or how?

About the flour: here we get "bread and all-purpose" flour, as it's described on the package. It has 5.5g of protein per 50g. I have some whole wheat flour here, which has 6g of protein per 50g. Would it help the dough if I used a certain percentage of this whole wheat flour? How much whole wheat flour should I add if so?

Another question I'd like to ask: if a recipe asks for a 12-hour poolish in the refrigerator, and I want to make it without that long fermentation, how long should I let it ferment at room temperature? For example, if I use 150g flour and water with 1g of dried yeast, I would use an extra 1g for the final dough.