Today's semolina bread came out pretty good, nice oven spring, decent crumb, though it did sort of blow out a little at one end, I think it needed a little more proofing. My shaping was a bit imperfect, too, my goal is to get the middle 2/3 of a loaf to have the same size (width and height) so that the slices are more uniform for sandwich making.

The changes I made (ratio of semolina/durum to bread flour, adding OJ, lower baking temperature) all seemed to have positive impacts, the crust isn't quite as dark or thick and the bitter taste from the bran is either gone or lowered to the point where it isn't obvious.

It'll probably take me a few more rounds to get it to the point where I'm really satisfied with it, but it was definitely an improvement over the first batch with the Azure semolina/durum flour. I haven't made pasta with it yet, that's on my list for this week.

Although I'm not selling my breads to anyone, I'm still thinking about that possibility, and a salable loaf is my standard. I'd rate this one as 80-90% of the way there.

Artisan to me means meeting a high standard of quality and consistency, and the latter includes shaping, proofing and baking.

There has been an interesting thread in the BBGA forum lately, and one of the full-time bakers made a comment about a loaf (one that probably looked better than my latest semolina bread) that I think defines the standards an artisan baker tries to meet:

I wouldn't present that loaf at the end of a practical baking assessment and expect to pass.

Loaves that are by design not uniform (or at least close to it) might be called 'rustic', I suppose.

I think the latest semolina dough would have benefited from some stretch-and-folds, that does seem to help the shaping.

My baguettes often looked like a snake that swallowed 3 rats, though I found with practice I got better at it, I think the pre-rolling part of the shaping is key. I watched the staff at SFBI roll out baguettes during one of the lunch breaks when I was taking my pastry course, they even let me roll out a few, and said I was doing pretty good, though they were much faster.

One of the advantages of making epis de bles is that the cuts tend to mask the uneven-ness of the baguette. (And it definitely maximizes surface area, the crusty outside is the best part of a baguette, IMHO.)

One of the things I noticed from the picture yesterday is that the sesame seeds are heavier on one side than on the other, probably has to do with the angle at which I hold the shaker. I thought this batch had enough seeds on them, my wife commented on the previous batch that there weren't many sesame seeds at all.

I think Hamelman recommends dipping the shaped loaf in a tray of sesame seeds, which is probably a lot faster in a production shop. (As I noted in a recent BBGA thread, a lot of production practices are geared towards speed and consistency.) I've always thought that might wind up with too many sesame seeds on the loaf, maybe next time I'll try it. I always wind up with a lot of them falling off the loaf and going to waste on the parchment, presumably any that don't stick would just fall back into the tray.