Hi Kristen, it's hard to say exactly what happened with your first loaf of sourdough bread, but most likely a combination of factors contributed to your wet, sticky and spreading dough. First, high hydration bread recipes can be difficult to handle throughout the process, so if your recipe had more than 68% water (the weight of the water as compared to the flour), you might want to begin with a recipe that has a bit lower hydration percentage and (as your dough handling skills improve) you can work your way up to higher hydration recipes. Second, if the dough was allowed to over-ferment before it went into the refrigerator, it might well have been over-proofed by the time you went to bake it the next day. Signs that your dough over-fermented during the bulk ferment: the dough seems to have deteriorated in strength, feels very wet and sticky, and rips easily. Dough like this is very difficult to shape and won't hold its shape well. You can learn more about bulk fermentation and how to gauge when your dough is ready to divide and shape in this blog post . Shaping a nice, taut loaf or boule that can maintain its shape while capturing some of the airiness of the developing dough is also a skill that takes practice. For that step, check out our shaping a boule and shaping a bâtard blog posts. And finally, for a blog that can help you navigate the whole process, check out this post. I know sourdough bread baking can seem a bit daunting at first, but the recipe featured in this blog is an excellent one to start with, and the Baker's Hotline is always happy to help! We're here M-F from 9am-9pm EST, and Saturday and Sunday from 9am-5pm EST, and the number to call is 855-371-BAKE (2253).

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