Breadbaking...with sourdough

So, last week Dear One and I were watching Chef Brad's Fusion Grain Cooking on the BYU-TV channel which we get on ROKU.  There was a cracked wheat sourdough bread recipe which really looked good.  I thought I might make it something.

Well...sometime came quicker than I expected. I had seen sourdough starter at King Arthur Flour and I had also seen sourdough flavoring there.  They cost about the same amount of money but since the instant flavor would presumably run out but the starter could be kept alive for years..I thought I would get the actual starter.  When I was out yesterday I forgot to stop at King Arthur and after that I had my great fall in the garden so the thought of sourdough, or anything involving effort, went out of my mind.  Not so the mind of Dear One.  SO....often I went to get a one-ounce container (really cute container, by the way...!) of sourdough starter when I got just before they closed.  Stopped at Dan and Whit's to get the potatoes, then came home and started the feeding process of the starter.  This morning all looked well so I went through the two more feeding processes and have now pulled the first batch of Chef Brad's cracked wheat bread out of the oven.

These show what happens when not enough flour in the dough!

Ugly bread, but does taste good. 

Not enough flour!

Of course, I went against  better judgement and put in only the amount of flour he called for.  Well, I did put is a little more, but the dough was sticky and I was sure it needed more flour but did not do it.  PLUS  I have 1 1/2 pound loaf pans and he said this made 2-pound loaves.  Those two  little items together made a  pretty icky-looking batch of bread, but it certainly does taste good.

The second batch is rising in the pans.  This time I put in 11 cups of all-purpose flour instead of the 6-8 cups old Brad tells us to plus I divided into six loaves...four in pans and two ovals on parchment paper on a half sheet pan.  The rising is looking good.  (I also have a batch of buttery sourdough rolls from the KAF sourdough blog rising though I may be too tired to see them all the way through to buns.)

Second bath: WAY more flour