I got into it because of a random YouTube video of baguette making being recommended to me, but (real) baguette probably isn’t the best place to start.
The video was by Gluten Morgen, here is a different one that’s probably a better beginner video.
Don’t start with Sour Dough. Make a couple of breads using yeast to see if you enjoy the process. If you do, you can easily make your own sour dough starter, but it will probably take a week or two until it is active enough to make proper Sour Dough. The ‘poolish’ or ‘biga’ yeast methods are similar to how you would work with sour dough, by making a small preferment with just a dash of yeast (the main difference between the two is country of origin and water content). You then let it sit and ferment for 4-6 hrs (room temp, or 12+ hrs in fridge) before making the main dough.
I’ve mostly been watching a different channel recently (Einfach Backen mit Marcel Paa), but the content is in german, so probably not for most people here. He has multiple videos a week of all kinds of bread styles and I use it a lot as inspiration.
A beginner tip, hold back 10-15% of the water content. How much water the flour can absorb is really dependent on the quality of the flour. A lot of the Bread Content Creators use really high quality flour that can hold a lot of water, but your super market flour probably can’t match it. Only add more water if you feel the dough is really tough and/or dense. Lower Hydration Dough is also much less sticky and easier to work with and can still create awesome bread.
I’d say its relaxing. No need to panic, even if nothing works out it’ll still be bread. It might be flat or dense or whatever, but it’ll still be perfectly edible and taste great. I’ve had my fair share of failed experiments, but you usually come out the other side with at least an idea of what went wrong and how to do it better next time.