Good white sourdough bread

I have been baking bread every week for a few months now. I finally feel like I have fine tuned my recipe to the way I really like it. This will be the one I make again and again. This makes two loaves of bread.

The night before:
Bring sourdough starter out of the fridge and let it sit for at least an hour so it is not so cold.
Before bedtime mix the following together in a non metal bowl:

1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups flour

Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let sit over night at room temperature.

Next morning add:
approximately 2 1/2 cups of best for bread flour ( I start with a little less and then add more when kneading)
1/2 tsp. baking soda.
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tblsp. sugar
2 Tblsp melted tenderflake (or other shortening)
1 tsp. lemon juice

Mix at first with a wooden spoon in the bowl. Once it is all coming together in a ball put it on the counter and start kneading. Every time the dough feels like it is going to start sticking to your hands or the counter add a little more flour. (Just small amounts you don't want the dough to get too dry)
Knead for about 10 mins. The dough should feel smooth and elastic.

Wash out the bowl with nice hot water so that it will still be warm when you put the dough in it. Dry the bowl. Put about a teaspoon of oil in the bottom of the bowl. Put the ball of dough in the bowl and flip it around until the oil is coating the dough. Place the bowl in the oven with the light on until the dough has doubled in size. (time varies from time to time, but 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours is what I have been doing)

Separate dough into two equal portions. Form each into a round ball by holding it and tucking the edges under while turning it. Keep tucking and turning until you are satisfied that you have a nice smooth round ball.  Place on a baking sheet. Let rise until double. (About an hour)

Just before baking take a very sharp knife and make some slashes in the bread. Works best if you do this in a quick swipe with a moderate amount of pressure. (Don't use a sawing back an forth motion)

Bake at 365 degrees for about 25 mins. Keep an eye on it. Every oven is a little different. Should be brown and sound hollow when you knock it with your knuckle.

Remove from oven and brush with milk all over. I use 2% milk. (The milk will absorb into the crust and make it all nice and shiny)

Cool and enjoy!

Third attempt

I was going for a lighter softer bread this time. I thought maybe a little bit less flour would be the answer. The result was something that resembled focaccia bread. Not what I expected. I must say it was very delicious when it was still warm out of the oven. Next time I will go back to using more flour. I will handle the dough gently when saping into loaves and let it rise longer.

2nd attempt better than the first

This time I went for a very slow rise. It developed a nice sour taste.
I made this dough by hand. No bread machine.
I started last night at 8pm.

I took the sourdough starter out of the fridge. I did not bother to let it get to room temperature. I just started mixing the ingredients. I wasn't sure if this was going to work out so I only used enough ingredients to make one loaf.

After ten minutes of kneading the dough it felt elastic but for some reason it was not as smooth as I would have liked it to be.

Here are the ingredients I used:
1/4 sourdough starter
2 1/2 cups bread flour
3/4 cup water
1/8 cup oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp powdered milk
1/2 tsp salt

I put all the ingredients in a glass bowl and then mixed them with a wooden spoon. Then I kneaded the dough for 10 mins. I then put a small amount of oil in the bottom of the glass bowl and returned the dough to the bowl. I turned the dough around so that it had a slight coating of oil. Then I covered the bowl with a damp tea towel. I placed it in the oven with the light on until I went to bed and then I turned the light off and left it in the oven until morning.
By morning the dough was at least double in size.
I formed a tight ball by turning the edges under. Then I flattened the ball somewhat. I placed it on a greased baking sheet. Then I let it sit until it was about double in size. This took about two hours.
Then I baked it at 375 degrees F for 25 min. and then I lowered the temperature to 355 degrees and baked for another 8 minutes. Total baking time was 33 minutes.

I like a soft crust therefore once I took the bread out of the oven I transferred it to a wire rack and covered with a damp cloth until it had cooled.

My husband said that overall he liked the flavour of the bread but he would have liked it to be just a little bit softer in texture.

Not sure how to achieve this. I will make some adjustments next time to see if I can do it. Perhaps a little bit more liquid? or maybe a slightly longer rise time once it is shaped into the loaf.

1st attempt at baking sourdough

My first attempt:

Used my bread maker on dough only setting. Made a receipe like french bread except I substituted 1/2 cup of  water for 1/2 cup sourdough starter.

result- looked good

taste- NOT SOUR, TASTED LIKE FRENCH BREAD!

Dissapointed in the flavour. Did more reading. Need to go for a slow rise to develop the sour flavour. The concern I have about using my breadmaker is the metal container. I have read sourdough should not be put in a metal container to rise. That is why I still used yeast as well as sourdough starter. The bread rose so fast once I shaped it into the loaves. They doubled in size in half an hour.

I will try again, next time without the bread maker.