Hi. I'm in desperate need of a little help. At the beginning of this year I went a little bread baking crazy and decided to finally try my hand at sourdough. I chose the procedure in Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day and had success for about 2 months. Beautiful plump loaves(tho not so much in the sour flavor). I really love the cold fermentation process and the 3 days he outlines to produce the bread fit in perfectly with my schedule. After 2 months, tho, life got hectic as it can and I was not baking but still refreshing my mother starter every week for about 3 weeks, then boom, my mother starter quit, just lay there not rising. Not knowing any better I threw her away and began again. Everything went great including the first batch of bread(which had a sour tang. YIPPEE), but when I refreshed it the first time, I accidentally threw in KA bread flour instead of the WW that I had been using. I've been having issues since.
My mother starter didn't rise after the bread flour and I was on the verge of tossing it and starting over AGAIN when I decided to do a little research and discovered I could revive her on the counter with twice daily feedings. Worked beautifully. Converted it back to a mother starter. Success. Went to make the dough starter and....nothing. No rise. Forged on faithfully and the bread stayed flat. Tossed it. Tried again. Got about a 25% rise out of the second dough starter after 12 hours and about a 25% rise out of the bread.
Has anyone encountered this problem? I don't want to have to start over again especially when my mother starter is doing what it's supposed to. I'd really appreciate any wisdom that might help.
Thank You!!!
