I made my first (and only) sourdough starter two summers ago, and I'm still using it. It took 10 or so days to get it to the point where it was really bubbly and active, plus there is some effort involved with monitoring it, throwing starter out, adding fresh flour and water, etc. etc., but once it got going, holy cow, I couldn't kill it with an axe. I keep mine in the fridge because if I don't, it will explode out of its container. Also, my husband doesn't like a very 'sour' dough, so I adjust it to his taste. If I wanted a more sour taste, I'd take what I wanted out of the starter and leave that portion out for a day or so before using it. As it is, I use it directly out of the fridge, replacing what I use with a 50% flour and water ratio, by weight.. For example, I'd replace a 2 cups of starter weighing roughly 700 gms with 350 gms of flour and 350 gms, of water. This is where the metric system is so great - 350 mls of water weights 350 gms. I digress. I use a variation of the 'no knead' recipe to make whole grain sandwich loaves. These turn out with a nice tight grain like you would see in a sandwich bread versus an artisan bread. I use loaf pans to bake them. The trick is getting the feel of how wet your dough needs to be (before you let it rise overnight). For sandwich loaves, you don't want quite as wet a dough as you would with the 'boule' shaped loaves you bake in a covered dish. What has worked for me is to use 4 cups of whole grain bread flour (per loaf), 1/2 cup sourdough starter, 1/4 tsp yeast, proofed in about 1/2 cup of warmish water, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, and optionally some cooked whole grains, flax seed, honey (all of which are not necessary, but nice). Then take your 4 cup pyrex measuring cup, add your proofed yeast (in water), your 1/2 cup starter, cooked grains, honey, whatever, then make up the difference to get to about 2 1/2 cups of liquid. Mix your two cups of flour and salt, then add the liquid. You'll have a really really wet dough, almost like a batter. I use my Kitchenaid with a regular cake beater thing for this, but you could do this by hand. Beat it for about 30 seconds, then add your last two cups of flour and beat until blended. Depending on humidity, it might be too much flour, too little flour or just perfect, but you can tweak it with a bit of water or additional flour. You want a dough that is kind of wet, maybe a BIT sticky but not glue-like. I put this mix in a 4 litre ice cream pail closed up with the fitted lid. Leave it overnight on the counter (the 18 hour rule is good here). It will grow. Next day, gently scrape the dough out of it's container and dump on to a dampened countertop. 'Stretch and Fold' a couple of times (look this technique up - it is brilliant), let rest a couple of minutes, then shape into loaves, place in loaf pans and Bob's your uncle. I bake mine for 10 minutes at 425, then reduce to 375 for 30 minutes or so. Internal temperature of the bread should be about 190-200 degrees F. This is so easy and if you use your bread for sandwiches, toast, whatever, you end up with the right shape. Also, if you don't have time to make the bread the next day, just stick in in the fridge. I've left the dough several days before baking, just make sure to take it out well ahead of when you plan to bake so it has time to warm up to room temp. Long winded, but I hope it helps1

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