What is this super active starter people speak of?
Hello,
I keep my 100% hydration starter in the fridge.
I top it up with the active starter left over from my next bake.
When I take it out of the fridge I activate it by adding about a cup of flour and a cup of water to a half cup of starter. I let that sit for 12 hours (where it's usually risen to double) and feed again with another cup of flour and water. 4 hours later I have a starter that has doubled in size and that's what I use to bake bread.
On this forum I read of people who can activate a starter to grow to three or four times in volume. This absolutely never happens with mine. Once it goes to double it usually starts to sink again and I know that is a bad sign.
So the question is, how do I get this volcano starter happening and what am I doing wrong right now?
As an addendum. My current starter bakes good bread but I am never quite satisfied with the oven spring and, as some of you might have realised if you read the forum, I am obsessed with getting good ears from my loaves, something which sadly still eludes me. I am wondering if this could be because I'm using a starter which hasn't been activated enough. Anyway. Enough about the ears again. I would just love to know how to produce volcano starter.
Any help gratefully received.