Sourdough starter ?, yes again..
I'm sure everyone is getting tired of ?s about sourdough starter. I noticed my loaves last week were spreading more than rising. With all the talks and pics of inactive starters, I decided to give mine a good feed. I started on Thursday and baked today. It never doubled, although is was bubbly and foamy. I retarded the dough overnight. After 4 hours on the counter, they looked like last weeks, hardly risen. I decided to refold and shape and waited another 2 hours. Still not much of a rise. Into the oven it went anyway and lo and behold it was the best loaf I have ever made. I got a huge oven spring and my slashes burst! I even got a crack on the bottom where maybe I didn't seal my seam too well. I had nice blistering of the crust, great flavor. I'd post a pic, but our camera croaked. So my question is doubling of the starter a must? or was I just lucky?
P.S. This is SourdoLady's starter (1yr old) and recipe...tyvm