Sourdough heaven

I've been experimenting with various sourdough bread recipes lately, and I've had some moderate success. Google the term "sourdough bread starter" and, surprise, surprise, you'll get a billion different sites. After spending several hours, and being told by my wife that I was obsessed, I narrowed the sites down to just a few.

Making sourdough bread is surprisingly simple, but to create your own starter takes some time. Following this method took me about 7 full days to get a starter that was nice and frothy. The only thing I did different was use King Arthur unbleached, unbromated bread flour. I didn't use any whole wheat flour.

On to the baking. There were several good recipies ( here, and here and here). But I settled on a video series I found on YouTube, by Chef Mike.

I haven't yet gotten the timing down just right, especially since my work schedule varies so much. Sometimes I'm ready to bake at noon, sometimes it's not until 10 pm! And, for some unexplained reason, my starter seemed to die after the 3rd loaf. Instead of throwing it away, I just added flour and water, waited 12 hours and threw away 1/2 of it and re-added flour and water, and 48 hours later my started was exploding again. Go figure.