Preamble: None of the following is original to me in the least. Here I’m merely collecting the wisdom of much more experienced bread makers into one easy to find spot. And I’m not even saying this is “all there is”, much more can be found on the web, from other people with different methods.
Stretch [...]

Well, doggone. It’s actually possible to get not too bad loaves made after all!
So this time around: double (or full) recipe, still working with Susan’s Norwich Sourdough from the Wild Yeast Blog since we know it works and don’t want to introduce new variables yet but I decided to make four loaves since I [...]

When you say you make sourdough bread, people in this end of the world (that’s North America, seems Europeans are more aware) tend to immediately think you mean “San Fransisco style bread” with it’s distinctive acidic tang, crispy crust and somewhat chewy crumb with irregular holes throughout.

Bread from San Francisco’s Boudin Sourdough Bakery
Well, that’s ONE [...]

Finally, a (near) success!!
Using a couche, or more accurately a chunk of heavy cotton cut from a painter’s dropcloth (yes, new but washed) and a very generous amount of rice flour/UAP mix (50/50) rubbed into the cloth, there was NO STICKING issue whatsoever. So the loaf had no opportunity to deflate. The result is, at [...]

Once you’re ready to make actual bread from your starter, which means it’s doubling or tripling in 3 to 8 hours, you’ll want to bump up the amount of starter you have.
For this lesson, we’ll assume that your main or “Mother” starter is active and you’ve seen it double or triple in size after each [...]