Sourdough Part II - the dough

 Ok so now that your starter is active and healthy, it's time to make BREAD! We need to start with the dough, obviously. 

Here is my tried and true recipe: (I have tried others - and it's pointless because this works for me.) 

300g water

10g salt

150g starter

450g bread flour

Here is my setup - I've got my starter, my bucket for the dough, my scale, flour, salt. 

Here is my starter added to my water 

(shh don't tell - I added more starter than I should have because I was pouring it directly into the water - about 15g extra. It turned out FINE!) 

Stir it up so it looks more like this. Then add your salt. 

Forget what you've learned about salt killing yeast. Won't happen here. 

I've added the flour now. 

Now you want to mix it all together. Just until combined. 

It's going to look very shaggy. Let it sit for 1/2 hour. It won't change much if at all. 

So now start the "stretch and fold" phase. I usually do 4 of these, each 1/2 hour apart. 

You want start at a corner and put your hand almost all the way under the dough, pull it over - on top of itself. Then turn the bucket 1/4 way and do it again until you've gone around the entire mass of dough. 

Below is what it looks like after the first stretch & fold and I've let it sit 1/2 hour. 

This is after the 2nd stretch and fold. The dough will start to feel a LOT more like dough instead of just a blob. Now let sit for another 1/2 hour. 

After half hour. 

Below is after the third stretch and fold. 

After the third S&F and 1/2 hour wait. 

Below is after the fourth stretch and fold. It's firm, not 100% smooth but not shaggy like when you just mixed it. 

Now cover your container and let it sit. It's going to spread out and rise. The time on this depends on the temperature in your kitchen. Anywhere from 3-6 hours. I actually left this a lot longer than I wanted to due to a schedule conflict but it was FINE! I've also had it when it didn't even double. Baking sourdough requires a LOT of faith.