Starter:Doubling and stirring
For those of you who don't know me from my beginner's growing pain, Sisyphus is a quarantine baby I've almost killed twice in the oven.
I'm now feeding it 1:2:2 half rye and half AP. Yesterday, I was able to really watch it and try to learn its habits so I could bulk ferment more predictably.. When it doubled after 5 hours and began to fall, I stirred it. I went to the movies last night and at the 16 hour mark it had doubled and was falling again. I was tired, so I stirred it once more and went to bed. This morning it had doubled again. I stirred it, ate most of it in a pancake and fed it 1:2:2 again. It has never gotten higher than double before falling.
For the question: Should I be stirring it before it falls, so that it can eat everything and grow? Should I be doing this over and over before discarding so that I maximize yeast growth? My breads taste great, but don't really rise as well as the yeast breads I'm used to.
I'm so grateful to everyone around the world who has been helping me become a better bread baker. (Baker is my real last name and I'm just trying to live up to it)
Another question if anyone can answer is whether I should be using the starter after its first rise and fall, or the third/last one?
I'm not going to start a new thread, and I don't know if anyone is reading this, but we lot power at noon yesterday and so Sisyphus got really hot. And ignored. And by noon this morning it was so light and fluffy and bubbly! I had made a 1:2:3 bread yesterday and so it got cold retard for 28 hours since I wasn't opening the fridge and didn't have a generator right away who knows how cold. It's baking now. I fed Siyphus 1:2:2, maybe 1:3:3 I didn't measure what was left when I made my pancake, so I'm making up a quick pizza dough to cook tomorrow.
I mixed up the dough. Sisyphus smells amazing. It almost tripled in 3 hours in a 82F kitchen. BF the pizza dough now for 2 hours then into the fi=ridge until tomorrow afternoon when I'll finish BF as it warms, shape and rest and make pizza.
The mixing/rising/falling etc is something that can tell you how long a feed will last before it will really need food. But, mixing never hurt a starter, I think they actually like it - they probably just like the attention they get :). In general, sourdough from a starter won't react like commercial yeast. A difference in rise is just one of those things. Enjoy!
The 1:2:3 bread came out pretty good, maybe even a little under proofed. Pizza felt pretty good, if a little wet and I probably need to learn how to account for humidity in the house. I feel like I'm starting to get to know my starter. Definitely wish I'd seen the "stir it when you pass by" instruction sooner.