Adding Levain Stage...How Flexible on the “When?”
I know there are those who dissolve starter (levain) into the water, add the flour, and there’s your dough (salt to be mixed in a little later). But there are also those who mix up flour and water, let it rest, then add in the starter (levain), and a little later the salt.
Imagine you’re going to do it the latter way: create flour/water dough, then add in an overnight levain. You make the levain at, stay, 8pm. It’s ready to go at 8am...but you have to put off making the dough, and the levain isn’t going to be added till, say 1pm....
What do you do? And yes, I know the float test tells you if the levain is good to go, so maybe you test it...but will it still pass the float test several hours after it’s reached it’s high point? And if it doesn’t...what do you do? Do you have to feed it and wait another 6 hours?
How flexible is the overnight levain when it comes to scheduling? If you have to adjust your schedule, will the levain be forgiving?