with the best information I had about sourdough. Here's a link
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/bethsbread/FrontPage.htmlThe site has been unmaintained for some years now, but the information is still good. Check it out, then come back to me with questions.
There are a number of factors that go into making any bread turn out the way it turns out. Type of flour, ratio of flour to liquid, whether there is any fat in the dough or not, sweeteners, salt, whole grain flour vs white flour, time and temperature of the rise, how well developed (kneaded) or not, and the type of yeast used, and how the dough is processed and cooked. The most important of these are the flour, hydration, time and temperature (temp both of the rise and the oven when baking), followed by the knead and the fat in the dough.
Bages, for instance, are made with a very hard wheat, is a very firm dough, very well developed, boiled first and then baked.
Soft dinner rolls are best made with all-purpose flour rather than bread flour, made into a soft but moist dough, contain milk, egg, and/or butter (considered to be "dough conditioners). They are baked in pans at about moderate oven 350 - 375 because you don't want a thick crust to build up on them. Pan loaves are similiar.
Soft Pretzles are made into a moderately soft dough, shaped then often dipped into boiling water that contains a small amount of lye to get that great shine and color.
What are your goals in terms of they types of bread that you'd like to be making? There are very different ingredients and processing needed for crusty artisan breads from what's needed for a tender bread used for cinnamon rolls, brioche or dinner rolls/loaves. So to start with, figure out what type of bread you want to focus on. Treat your breadmaking as an experiment - keep notes of what your make, exactly what you did, and how it turned out. That way you'll be gathering information for yourself about how to make adjustments that will get you closer and closer to what you want to achieve.
Depending on what your bread goals are, the potato flake starter you are using might or might not be appropriate for what you want to achieve. It's hard to maintain a commercial-yeast based starter, unless you are lucky enough to have "contaminated" it with a strong enough strain of "wild" yeast to take it over and turn it into a natural yeast starter. Generally, the term "sourdough starter" refers to a starter that is perpetuated by feeding with flour and water only, one that maintains itself as a stable culture of non-commercial yeast (a different strain of yeast from commercial baker's yeast) and lactobacilli. When you get a good strain going, it can be maintained from decades (or some over 100 years, such as the Oregon Trail Starter). A starter that's constantly fed with commercial yeast will eventually spoil, as the build-up of acids from the yeast (not lactic acid, but other types of acid) eventually weakens the yeast and the starter becomes vulnerable to undesirable strains of microorganisims. Their are other names for starters of this type (levain is a French term, desem is a Flemish term), and there are differences in them based on their consistency and how they are maintained, but the common thing about them is that they are all maintained on just water and flour.
Many types of starters can make sour bread, that doesn't make the dough what we know as "sourdough". You only get that rich complexity of flavors with a wild yeast.
"sourdough" starter.
I hope that helps some. Let us know what you're trying to achieve, and there are lots of folks here who can help with their experience and knowledge.
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