Hello bakers.

I've been making my own bread now for about half a year. The italian bread over in the Favorite Recipes is probably the most difficult I've done. I have some other main stay recipes that I use for white/wheat loaves but what I really want to make is sourdough.

 So after checking my calendar and making sure I'm not traveling anywhere I started my starter.

The starter I'm using is a Amish friendship starter. May or may not be the best but I had all the ingredients at the house.

I began this yesterday and the recipe calls for me to mix 2c AP flour, 2c h20, 2.25tps yeast. and let it sit for 5 days uncovered. After reading many threads on the this forum I assume that is to capture more wild yeast.

This is my question, since it's flour and water mixed it has created a hard shell over the top. 

Does this shell get removed?  Do I smash it into the mixture on day 5 when I add more ingredients?