"Starter" vs. "Leaven"
Greetings!
I had been making my own bread for a while but was making several fundamental mistakes until I took a bread making class which instantly improved my bread. They gave us a a sourdough starter which I fed over a few days/weeks until I had enough volume to bake with. The recipe they gave us for sourdough called for 1 cup of the starter, IN ADDITION to 1 teaspoon of dry yeast.
I finally got around to reading my "Tartine" bread book, and I noted that they do not use a "mature" starter like the recipe from my class called for, rather they used a "leaven" which was made of a single tablespoon of the mature starter mixed with 200 grams of 50% bread flour/50% whole wheat flour and 200 grams of water left overnight. The remainder of the "leaven" not used in the bread was considerered a new starter. Additionally the recipe only called for 200 grams of this leaven, and no dry yeast.
Basically the book says not to use a refrigerated starter as it might be too sour, and to make the leaven the night before actually baking.
Any comments on this? Is this just preference and style or is there something to it?
Thanks!