Sourdough success!!

I tried again to make homemade sourdough bread, and it was a success!  I tweaked the recipe (more flour for a stiffer dough; used about 1 cup of pretty liquidy starter, 1.5 cups flour, and enough water for a stiff dough, plus 1 scant t salt), mixed up the bread and kneaded it by hand for quite a long time on Wednesday night, then put it in the fridge to rise slowly so I could wait until Thursday night to bake it.  I took the dough out of the fridge about an hour before baking, which seemed like enough time to warm up and rise a bit more.

My aunt Sue had sent me a really good recommendation about baking in a small oven - bake the bread on the bottom rack, then flip it over if it starts to get too dark on the bottom before it's done.  I was going to try that, but I fiddled around with the oven rack and realized I could flip it over and because of the way the shelf was configured, it was about 1 inch higher off the flame than before.  I also baked a smaller loaf this time, so it was finished before the bottom got too dark.  But, I'll definitely try the 'flip' method if needed in the future!

The final result - amazing.  Crusty on the outside, just-right density on the inside, good flavor, and best of all, no sweaty gym sock odor!  I'd never buy bread again, except that that's just unrealistic.  :)