Just one try!! I’d say just know your loaf and how it normally expands and base the length off of that. You want it tight enough that it creates the shape but not so tight that it gets absorbed into the dough or makes the dough explode lol. Thinking back I would say I maybe gave it a two finger gap on this one? As I normally say with bread baking, go with your gut and it’ll usually turn out ok! :)

Lol yeah totally!!! I think when you normally see one of these loaves that’s usually what they are, but this was for a party so I wanted to make it foolproof and just went with my normal recipe :)

Quick Recipe:
300g High Gluten Flour
235g Water (78%)
9g Salt (3%)
60g Spelt Starter (20%)

~7.5 Hour bulk ferment @ ~75F
Build levain in morning / wait till starter is about an hour out from it's peak
Build autolyse w/salt / wait 1hr
Add starter and 5m Rubaud Mix / wait 30m
5m Rubaud Mix / wait 30m
Large stretch and fold on countertop / wait 30m
Lamination / wait 45m
Coil Fold 1 / wait 45m
Coil Fold 2 / wait 45m
Coil Fold 3 / let bulk ferment till done
Shape into boule and put in fridge overnight!

The next morning, cut 4 pieces of cooking twine long enough to wrap around the dough, and soak them in vegetable or similar neutral oil. Cut parchment paper into a circle slightly larger than the size of the dough, lay out the strings in a star pattern, and then plop the dough on the center of the strings. Wrap each set of strings around the dough (loosely so the dough has room to expand), and tie them to themselves. Pop everything in preheated dutch oven @ 500f for 15 minutes with the lid on, and @ 450f with the lid off for another 15 or until desired darkness! Shove half of a cinnamon stick in the top of the dough once cooled for extra pumpkin flair!