I keep my starter on the counter myself. I do refrigerate it when I go out of town, but I feed it about every other day. I do NOT use the pretty standard 1:1:1 or 1:2:1 ratio for feeding or Id have a monster lol. My mother starter is around 1qt in size without gases so when I feed it I get about 65-70% of a doubling in size and that feeding is nothing more than about 1/2C flour and 1/4C water. When I bake, I activate/prefeed the amount of starter I will use at a 1:1:1 ratio the day prior which lands me with a thick pancake batter consistency and 100% + doubling with fantastic bouquet. I know that’s a little weird but it works for me and manages a decent amount of starter if I need it without it ballooning into a complete beast in size.
As far as bulk ferment, my timing is as follows:
1.) Mix dough and rest for one hour and complete first fold.
2.) wait 1/2hr and 2nd fold.
3.) wait 1/2hr and complete 3rd fold.
4.) bulk ferment for about 4hrs but if the kitchen is cooler (under 70F) that can easily go up to 6-8 hours.
5.) Turn out dough and form batards and drop into baskets.
6.) Retard at around 43F for 8-12 hours. I try to
Time this so I’m sleeping while retarding.
7.) Get up and preheat oven to 450F for one hour with my stone.
8.) I turn out the batards onto the stone and bake for 30 minutes while puting a couple cups of ice cubes in the bottom.
That’s it in a nutshell.
Right now, I am playing with my bulk fermentation and forming method to try and capture/maintain a bit more gas in the dough prior to retarding.
