starter rises, bread doesn't
I have a young starter, who is just lazing about. It is only three weeks old or so, & I am new to sourdough so I have really no idea what I am doing. I made a loaf of bread using the 1-2-3 dough last week, came out really nice. No problem. This week, nothing will rise, except the starter itself. It doubles just fine in about 8 hours, but when I go to use it in a recipe- little or no rise. (pancakes were lovely).
I am keeping it at about 80% just because it seems less messy to me, & somewhere on the board someone mentioned the stiffer starters rose bread better so there we are...
a.I take the stuff out in the evening, feed to get up to size so I have enough for a loaf plus enough left over
b. sit 8 hours until doubled (or overnight)
c. mix into dough of choice (so far have tried 1-2-3 & a buscuit)
d. allow to rise for 4-8 hours (currently we are waiting w/ baited breath for nothing much to happen)
e. shape loaf allow to rise for second time, maybe retard in the fridge for several hours but we haven't managed to get to this point to have to make this decision yet (tried on the loaf of bread, but wasn't really worth wasting the propane to bake it)
g-bake & enjoy....
I realize I am oversimplifying, I'm leaving out all the kneading etc, but where am I going wrong- seems like the beasties are as active as they are supposed to be? So why are they 99lb weaklings? Am I timing this all wrong? I would really like to get past step b. & down to step g....