Daily Bread

I think most sourdough recipes/ methods/ techniques come from professional bakers or people writing books that are baking so much bread that they might as well be professional bakers. I am not sure these folks are writing to solve my needs. I want a nice loaf of sourdough bread every couple of days, with minimum effort.

My current solution is to take a bit (~100 grams) of the dough from my current batch of dough, and put it in a storage container in the refrigerator before setting the dough to bulk ferment.

Then, a couple of days later, I put 400 gm of flour, 8 gm salt, 4 gm yeast in to my mixing tub, make a well, where I put the dough from the frig, and pour warm water on it and mix, then knead by hand, gradually adding water until I have the right consistency. Then, I put a ball of dough in a storage container and in the frig. It has salt in it so it does not ferment too fast, and I do not have to adjust hydration.  If I am not going to bake for a while, I feed the dough with flour that contains 2% salt, water, and knead into a firm dough.

I find that I can knead a pound of dough faster than my stand mixer, and the cleanup is faster. And the hydration is more precise. Yes, it has some yeast in it, but mostly I do not care - and I can kill the yeast off to have a "pure sourdough starter" by letting the "starter" sit on the counter for a couple of hours, and then feeding it.

These days, I like the ease, flavor, and texture of the "old dough" approach