Basic Hearth Bread and some oven spring

I made this Basic Hearth Bread for the monthly Bread Bible baking project about one month ago. I was just coming down with a virus so the process is a little hazy. Plus it was a month ago... I do remember that it was quick and easy to make and I was pretty pleased with the result. This is my kind of bread, quite dense with a nice crust. AND I think I conquered the oven spring thing, for this loaf at least.

First you make a starter and leave it to ferment. I left it for the minimum time because I was feeling unwell and I wanted some vegemite toast.

The timing escapes me now but the process was the usual knead the dough for a while and leave it to rise.

A business letter fold and more rising followed (okay maybe it wasn't that quick but it didn't require a lot of effort).

Then shaping into a boule and the last proof before slashing and into the oven. This is where I was careful not to leave it too long for the final rise, in pursuit of the elusive oven spring. This was the main suggestion for achieving oven spring on baking advice forums.

Hooray! It looks a bit like a pretty good loaf of bread. And the slashes have expanded out during baking. I think I can call that some kind of progress.

And finally I had my vegemite toast.

This month (since we're in October already) I think we're making Banana Feather Bread (whatever that may be).