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.