Sourdough starter feeding times and how it affects proofing time
Hello,
I'm relatively new to sourdough and had some questions. So far I've been going off of Ed Wood's Sourdough book as well as some posts I've read from here. Now to the questions:
1. Sourdough feeding time. Lately I've been feeding my sourdough starter before work ~1pm at 100% hydration at cool room temperature ~65F. I'd come home around 11pm and make bread and feed again. What I've noticed when I'm home is that my sourdough starter doubles usually within 4 hours or so. So I'm letting it go an extra 6 hours before feeding or using. How does this effect my loaf, especially proofing times in the end? Would it be more beneficial to catch my starter just as it has doubled and then use it?
Last night around 11pm I made a loaf using 1 cup of starter, 300g water, 435g 50:50 whole wheat/all purpose flour and 1 1/2tsp salt at 65F. It was a sticky dough (little wetter than Wood's basic recipe) so I let it rest and french folded it 3 times total with rests inbetween. This morning at 8:30AM it looked like it may have tripled, with a few big bubbles on the outter skin. I carefully removed it from the bowl onto the final cooking pan, and french folded it a couple times to shape it. I put it in the oven with the oven light on for about an hour and came back. The dough started to flatten slightly and inrease in size. I finger poked it and the indentation stayed, so I baked it. Overall I enjoyed the resultant bread, was hoping to get bigger holes like a cibatta style but maybe the whole wheat prevented that. From this I have the following question:
2. Ed Wood's recipe says to final proof for 2-4 hours, usually 1 hour room temperature to benefit the yeasts and then followed by warmer temps around 85F to increase sourness (which I like). However I didn't get past one hour final proofing without it seeming to be done/over proofed. Is my bread proofing fast because of how long the starter went without being used or fed? I'd really like to get some more sourness out of my bread.
3. How do I keep sourdough in the fridge? I've been maintaining this starter for almost a month now and have not refrigerated it until last night. I fed it, then let it sit out at room temperature for an hour and put in the fridge. This morning when I looked at it, it has doubled in size! Now can I use this starter straight from the fridge into a bread recipe or does it need to be fed again before so? I plan on baking bread every other day so what would be the best method for maintaining this starter in the fridge?
I know I've asked a lot of questions so thanks to those who can take the time to answer them!