Sourdough Bread From Starter to Finish

I tried growing wild sourdough starter from water and white flour. Every day I discarded half, feed it, talked to it and kept it in a warm place. After a week, I nearly gave up. There were no signs of life. It smelt sour but refused to evolve into a lively yeast.

Here's what it looked like after a week. Just a few tiny bubbles.

So I fed it with whole rye flour instead, left it on a warm heater and saw the difference in a day!

Bubbles!

After three days, the starter was really bubbly and strong enough to rise bread. It smelt yeasty and sour.

When it spills out of the bottle, it's time for it to graduate into sourdough bread.  

As a first attempt, I made a dough with plain white flour, warm water mixed with 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp of salt, and 1 tab olive oil. Mixed thoroughly with a wooden spoon and let it sit covered for four hours. It was too sticky to knead and for max bubbles I needed a wet dough.

After four hours it doubled in size.

My starter was doing it's job nicely. Lots of gluten strands and air bubbles.

After a punch down with the wooden spoon, I let it sit in it's baking pan for four hours and baked at the highest temperature in my oven (gas mark 9) for 20 mins. (EDIT: I should have covered this up while proofing as a crust has formed over the dough.)

Looks OK but I baked it in a steel bowl which did'nt conduct heat. The bottom was still undercooked.

My next attempt was with half white flour and half wholemeal breadmaking flour. This time I used a proper baking tin.

I baked for 15 mins on gasmark 9 and 20 on gasmark 8. It was in the oven for 5 min too long. It was too crusty but smells and tasted great. I was excited to have made real sourdough bread! (EDIT years later: this is terrible sourdough :P I was given a better starter by friend and can make a decent loaf. I have an updated a new post.)