Simplicity Gone Sour

Over the holidays I was given a small bit of someones Sourdough Starter. I've always wanted to make good sourdough but all my starters have left me lacking for rise, and all my recipes have left me lacking for flavor. Fortunately my girlfriends father is a bit of a Sourdough officianado and has been (quite successfully apparently) making good sourdough for some time.

Since I've never had much luck with sourdoughs (and since I was mildly inspired by Mikes post) I decided that the best way to go was to keep it simple. I read a bunch of recipes for sourdough and settled on the following:

two cups starter
some oil (to keep the dough from sticking mostly)
a small bit of sugar (to get the yeasties going)
and a smaller bit of salt (for flavor)
and enough flour to make a dough (I made mine fairly soft as I was afraid of too dense a loaf)

I mixed it all up, kneaded, covered, and walked away. I checking in on it now and again and after about two hours it had doubled. I loafed it, scored it, put it on the stone, and waited about 20 minutes until it started to puff up.

Now this is where I strayed from habit. Rather than pre-heating the oven, I put the bread in at the same time I turned it on (someone suggested it and it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time). The total bake time turned out to be something like an hour and a half, unfortunately I pay attention to the bread more than I do the time...

I'd say I learned two things from my this try at sourdough that probably apply to all breads, but seem to have particular importance to sourdoughs; first, start with good ingredients (starter!) second, be patient.