Sourdough baking

Yeah, it's gonna be sticky. The ratios in that recipe are similar to my own recipe. It's easier to work with if you wet your hands thoroughly. It should tighten up each time you give it a fresh fold, and by the time it's fully risen, a dusting of flour should make it easy to work with floured hands.

I find that the dough tightens up nicely all at once if you combine the starter and water first, then mix in the flour, and let that sit covered for twenty minutes or be before adding salt and kneading that in; the salt causes the gluten to tighten up. Bread flour might also help there.

Baking is really more of a feel. Super sticky is good for some bread, more stiff for others. I tend to use as much moisture as I can comfortably handle.

It tends to stiffen up as it rests, especially if you used any whole grain. The fluffy crumb comes from a lot of gluten development. I like the 30 minutes rest, then fold method to get windowpane. If you don't know what I'm talking about, search up "windowpane sourdough."

Bear in mind if you use high levels of whole grain, windowpane is tougher to reach, if not impossible.

I live in a warm and humid climate so generally start my dough with cool water. Usually for what my kids call "the sourdough" I aim for 70% white flour (30% any whole grain) and 70% hydration. You probably want to use bread flour for most of the white flour, all purpose doesn't usually have enough gluten.

When a dough is too sticky, I do not knead it, put in a bowl and stretch and fold every half hour (ETA: until it feels developed, usually 3 or 4 times total) with the help of a spatula, let rise, then bake in a bread pan, pour it if I can't shape it. I have done that successfully with 100% whole grain and 90% hydration. It ended up really good, but at all points till final rise in the oven I was skeptical.

I will say that sourdough is much less sticky than dough made with dry yeast in my experience.

You’ve gotten some good advice. I’m surprised your dough was sticky with the recipe you linked, but that’s not a bad thing. Maybe your starter was more wet. I’ve had good results with both sticky and stuff dough. I wet my hands with cold water to handle the sticky dough.

Let us know how it comes along!