fresh from the oven... the crust has a crunch but generally tough like leather... we usually don't eat it on day 1

on day 2, crust would have absorbed some moisture and soften up... you still get a nice chew but won't be hard

generally speaking. .. "hard as rock" is over baking but it's hard to say why without more info & pictures

commercial bread is full of bread improver and bread softener... this is what people is used to...

small bakery soft bread & buns are enriched with butter/oil, eggs, milk & sugar... these are natural softeners... techniques like tangzhong and yudane method will also make the bread softer...

traditional SD doesn't have any enrichments, so the crust will never be as soft... it will be similar to baguette and a wee bit tougher because it is baked longer

spam time... recent bakes...

Wah, looks pretty! Should cut into half and show the cross-section also!

And my starter finally doubled with more visible bubbles! After changing to tepung gandum.

we purposely shape for this crumb structure... not the big big holes beloved by internet... lol