The first sourdough loaves.

I've been nudging my sourdough starters along for the last month or so. It was a little touch and go there between week 2 and 3 because I didn't see much growth. They were, however, bubbling away and smelling very yeasty and sour.

They get fed twice a day and because my kitchen is quite chilly, I started putting the jars on a heating pad with towels around them for about 2 hours after their feedings and then sticking them on top of the refrigerator after that where there is a little more warmth than my counter. This week I finally saw about 1/2" of climb on the walls of the glass jars and while it's not exactly bubbling over, I decided to try to make a couple of loaves with it and see what happens.

Here's the proofed starter, ready to go into the dough mix-



Mixed with the rest of the ingredients until shaggy. This is allowed to rest for 30 minutes before kneading-



Here's the dough after about 10-15 minutes of kneading with a dough hook. It will get another 45 minutes of resting-



And here's one of the shaped loaves, ready for a night in the fridge-



Tomorrow I'll pull them out of the fridge and let them rise. Hopefully they will, and I'll have something to bake.