Building doughs
This might seem like a basic question, but I've been struggling with getting a good texture and taste out of my new sour starter.
One thing that confuses me is the amount of intermediate building steps in creating the final dough. Some recipes call for taking the starter and building a "levain" or intermediate dough, then adding another round of flour and water usually the next day and letting that ferment for just a few hours before baking. Others seem to add even more intermediate builds.
What does all if that intermediate building get you? What would you expect would be the difference between that and a dough simply built in one stage, say, out of maybe similar parts starter and flour and water and then bulk fermented on the counter then baked the next day?