Hi! My starter is 1 month old, a few days ago I switched to 1 4 4 or 1 5 5 feedings and using a bit of whole wheat. Before I always did 1 1 1 or 1 2 2 and used at least 20 % of whole wheats during feedings. Now my starter suddenly gained in strength and it triples, before it most of the time doubled. My question is do I continue with my new routine or this really makes no difference in cooking and I might as well just switch back to 1 1 1.
350 g Manitoba Oro 14 protein flour
150 g AP flour 12 protein
360–370 g water
10 g salt
100 g starter 100% hydration
I mixed everything and developed the dough with stretch and folds and then some coil folds.
My room temperature is very low, around 17–18°C, so I bulk fermented for about 16 hours until it just doubled in size.
After that I pre-shaped it, then shaped it and put it into the fridge for 17 hours at around 3°C. When I took it out, it held its shape and didn’t spread, and it was pretty tall.
For baking, I placed a baking steel on the lower rack and preheated the oven to 450°F with a cast iron lid. I baked it covered for 30 minutes at that temperature. When I removed the lid, the crust looked pretty pale, so I baked it for an additional 20 minutes at 420°F.
This is my second attempt. The last time I definitely underproofed, and this time the crumb is not as sticky and feels more like actual bread. But I assume that even though it doubled, it might still be slightly underproofed, probably because I used very strong flour and did the bulk at low temperatures