Preparing starter for bake question...

I've been baking sourdough bread for about a year now, have read Leader and Hammelman's books, and I am still confused about a couple of things regarding starters...

First, when preparing a levain for a particular formula, I have always just pulled out some cold starter from the fridge and added the prescribed amount of flour/water the night before. In other words, this is starter from my fridge that hasn't been refreshed since last baking--usually 5-7 days earlier. My confusion is Leader seems to suggest that the starter you keep in your fridge must be refreshed prior to using it for making bread. Does this mean that I am supposed to refresh the cold starter the day before using it to make the levain? Or is the levain instruction in fact the "refreshing" that he's talking about? That is how I have always done it and it seems to work ok. I was just baffled by the way he words it. It gives the impression that you need to prepare two days in advance for each bread in his book, which is not very appealing....

Another question I have is can you retard your starter for timing purposes? I want to bake after work today (I'll get home after 2pm). I didn't want to mess with preparing the levain at 5am, so I mixed it last night and put it in the fridge. I took it out and put it on the counter this morning, so it will have a good 8-9 hours to get in shape for baking. Did I do right?

Sorry for the longwinded questions.

Mike

If you do not use your starter for an extended period of time this is a good idea. I have been using a firm levain type starter for a little while now and the recpes I make suggest feeding the starter twice a day for 3 days or so before starting to make your bread. This is trying to make your starter more like a healthy vigirous starter in a bakery that is used daily and consequently fed often. As far as retarding your starter I do not have an

I would base your decision on refreshing before baking vs just taking some out of the fridge on the activity of your starter. If your storage starter in the fridge is fairly fresh (less than a week since the last refresh) AND when you use it right out of the fride you get good results (e.g. doubling in about 6-8 hours) then go for it. If you are having problems with your bread rising then look to refresh before the levain build part of the recipe. I am able to routinely pull starter from the fridge and mix it ringht into the levain build with good results. I bake every week or more frequently so my storage levain is usually pretty fresh. Work on smelling and tasting your levain/starter to gauge the ripeness. There is some good info on that in the books you have been using.

Thanks for the responses. I got home and found the starter I had retarded overnight looked ready to use after having sat at room temperature while I was at work. I had it in a metal bowl, so it was tough to tell if it doubled, but it had definitely expanded significantly. I used it to make Leader's (Poillaine-inspired) whole wheat miche. This was a good test for my starter, since the formula doesn't call for any packaged yeast. Leader says it should take 2-3 hours for the dough to double (after a 1 hour rise and quick knead. I folded instead of kneading at this point). Well, it didn't really approach doubling until 3-3.5 hours or so. My kitchen is still pretty warm (upper 70s), so perhaps this was an indication my starter wasn't at full strength. I shaped it and let it proof for about 1.5 hours. It probably could have gone a little longer, but it was getting very late and I needed to get things moving. In any event, the finger poke told me it was ready. It sprang up nicely in the oven and looked beautiful when I pulled it out of the oven. I left it on the counter to cool overnight and went to bed. I assume my wife cut into it this morning, but I won't get a chance to taste it for myself until I get home from work. To sum up, I think I'm going to stick with current method of just pulling the cold starter and mixing the levain the night before. I just have to make sure I keep those starters refreshed on a regular basis.