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For a while, my starters (white and rye) were very active, rising dough quickly and making light, open crumb.  Now I'm getting very sluggish rises and dense, chewy crumb (most notably the white starter) from the same recipes.  I do get a huge oven spring out of them, so *something* is alive in there!

I feed or use the starter once a week.  When feeding, I keep about 4oz and add 2-3oz of flour and 3-4oz of water to make a poolish-like mother starter.  When making plain sourdough, I make a firm starter from the mother starter, like French bread dough.

I've tried overnight proofs in the fridge, and using a pan of hot water in the oven to simulate a proofing tent.

Any suggestions on making my starter more zippy are welcome :)

-Joe 

This is the bread I made on Friday, I started off by soaking
1 1/2 cups organic oat flakes in boiling water and resting it for 30
minutes from there I added a cup of fresh milled whole wheat, 1 cup
water 1/2 cup milk 1 tablespoon raw sugar and 2 1/2 teaspoons of
yeast, 2 cups bakers flour, mixed well, rest 30 minutes added 2
tablespoon butter and enough bakers flour to make nice dough, kneaded
in DLX 6 minutes adding 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt.
Removed from bowl, kneaded into a ball by hand, rest until double
plus, size, shape rise and bake, 400' 50 minutes.
qahtan

Since I'm a bread nerd, I have picked up a lot of gadgets over the years, but mostly have old favorites. I thought it might be fun to compare what tools we have and how we like them. It might also be helpful for newbies who are just adding to their collections.

So here's a "survey". Feel free to add to this if you think of more, I was just brainstorming here:

1. Mixer: Which mixer do you use, or are you a hands-only purist? :)

2. First Proof: Do you have a favorite bowl or container for rising doughs, preparing poolish, or saving sourdough?

3. Shaping Loaves: Do you use a scale for weighing ingredients or loaves? What do you use for dividing dough and shaping loaves?

4. Second proof: What are your favorite baskets, couches and pans for rising your loaves?

5. Baking: What kind of hearth stone do you use, tools for slashing laoves, and do you use a peel to transfer loaves into the oven? And ovens--what's your preference: Gas or Electric, convection, or do you prefer the weber grill? :)

Don't mean this to be serious (or a competition!) but have fun and show my your toys!  :)

I love sourdough bread.  And I find it fits my lifestyle better anyway.

I work at home. And with baker's yeast bread, I may forget that something is bulk fermenting and it over ferments. With my sourdough bread, I don't have to worry about it. I bulk ferment and proof in my basement at 70f. and I can forget about it for a few hours and not worry about it.

Today for the first time I proofed and then retarded in the fridge and baked early this morning straight from the refrigerator. It worked great, sourdough rye, came out wonderful.

Anyone else find that this fits their lifetstyle better?

--Richard