First Loaves Ever :)

I've been making regular appearances on the forum trying to map out the process of making real bread from a sourdough starter. I've made bread before, but it was a simple flour water salt yeast mixture and it came out bland with no big bubbles in the crumb and the crust was really light even though it was "crispy". 

This was my attempt at my very own sourdough, whole wheat multigrain bread. I decided go big or go home lol

The flours were whole wheat, spelt and all purpose. It was made with a starter that was wheat and rye. The starter I tossed in some warm water and made a poolish that got all frothy, which I incorporated into the flour mixture along with some more warm water and let it sit for a bit, then added the salt a tad of maple syrup (in lieu of molasses) and boy was it goopy. I tried some stretch and folds in the bowl but it practically ran through my fingers. I didn't have a bakers knife so I opened a new set of cheapo spatulas, took the large one and broke off the handle. I think I got them for like 2 bucks at walmart lol 

So I added some flour (not much) and it firmed up a little, I used water on my hands rather than flour to keep the dough from sticking and that was neat because I'd never used that method before, and I'm surprised that it's not more common knowledge! 

So I did 3 sets of stretch and folds with 30 minute intervals in-between. I could have taken longer, and the dough could have used an overnight bulk ferment just for structure, but I was in a hurry and tried to make up for it by really kneading it until I got a somewhat acceptable "window test" if that's the right term.

The seeds I added were flax seed and pumpkin seed, with black and regular sesames on top. After all the resting of the dough, I cut them and shaped them the best I could while my starving husband waited lol… then I layed them on a metal pizza pan coated with cornmeal and let them proof. I could only really give them about 40 minutes, but it was good enough to get acceptable bread… I knew the crumb might not come out perfect but it really came down to getting the loaves in the oven. 

I "winged" these loaves, and didn't really measure anything but they came out pretty good! They could have used just a little more salt, but 

They're not fancy or really pretty, but they're my first. :) Here's some pictures: 

Thanks for looking!