My first post is to say thank you to all the contributors on this site. I have learned a great deal about sourdough since I started out a good few months ago. I have eventually managed to bake a few loaves that have the taste and texture we like. The next effort is to make the loaves look pretty *wipe brow*.
I used a combination of Richard Bertinet's basic sourdough recipe and Flo Makanai's 1-2-3 formula. I baked three different loaves over a period of five days to see what the taste difference would be. The bulk ferment went into the fridge for 36 hours and loaf one proofed for 24 hours. We liked loaf two quite a lot, but loaf three was the best so it looks like a five day ferment/proof combination suits our taste buds.
The other brilliant news is that hubby, who has been battling IBS-D for the last four years, does much better on the five-day-old ferment. He cannot eat anything with "normal" yeast anymore. Whether it is only due to the sourdough or in combination with the other interventions I cannot say, but he had no discomfort with the last loaf despite eating almost half of it last night! My next efforts will be to make sweet goods with sourdough, which this site has plenty of to keep me busy for the foreseeable future.
Once again, thank you for all the information from seasoned bakers as well as amateurs who share their mistakes and frustrations. My sourdough path doesn't look so bumpy anymore!
