Haven't started yet! But I need to get some help before I tackle this (I'm a newbie and still very confused).
My question pertains to the timing. I have the time to start the levain the day before and also go through all the steps the next day--save the baking part. Let's say I'd like to mix the dough at 9am. I read the levain can take up to 18 hours to pass the float test. So I would start it ca 18 hours before 9am. But then all the other steps can take up to a total of 9 hours. So that gets me to 5 or 6pm. Can I then stick the whole thing in the fridge and bake the next morning at say 9am? Or is that too long?
Mix levain on day 1
mix dough on day 2, shape and put in fridge.
Bake day 3.
You can even mix leaven a day earlier and stick in fridge overnight when ready, that way the dough can be mixed first thing in the am since you will know levain is ready.