I've seen several posts on this and my understanding is that unless the recipe calls for different hydration or flour, a portion of the starter can be used instead of making a separate levain. This all makes sense to me, however, the "ideal" state for feeding a starter and using it as levain doesn't seem to be the same.
So for example, I could scoop out some of my starter when it's resting at its peak (or 4-8 hours after feeding, as most recipes describe it) and mix into my dough. However, this doesn't align with the "ideal" feeding time, which is when the starter is declining / collapsing (typically 12 hours after feeding). I guess I could just scoop out what I need at the peak, let the remainder rest some more and then feed it, but that seems to complicate things and I'm not sure how the starter would react to "cutting it short" earlier in the process.
Does any of this make sense? What's the verdict? Do you make a separate levain or just scoop out some starter?
Thanks in advance!
, but I made a levain from my refrigerated fed starter (early yesterday morning; close to tripled in 3 hours). I removed my starter from the fridge and scooped out what I needed for the levain at 8pm. It's now 9.5 hours later and looks like this with about 3 hours to go (per pretzel recipe it should be ready in around 12 hours). So far so good. I didn't need to feed my starter before putting it back in the fridge as it was still active from the morning feeding and I probably keep taking from the 100g until I need to feed it again. I think this levain is doing pretty good!