Bread

Don't feed it twice a day if it doesn't need it, which it won't if it's cold where you're keeping it. Quite aside from microbial action being slowed by the cold, you're potentially diluting your stock of microorganisms if they're not feeding and reproducing fast enough, so they'll never really get going. Feed it when it's reached max volume and started collapsing again. If you want to kickstart things, leaving the light on in the oven should provide a warm enough environment to encourage fermentation

Maybe use it anyway? I made a batch of brioche yesterday and it had a great rise, starter looked a bit lacklustre before hand, didn't seem to suffer once it was mixed in. Could use a bit more than usual to compensate. Maybe you're feeding it too much and the yeast doesn't have a chance to take hold before being diluted again.

Use warm water when you're feeding it.

Seasonal variations in temperature are all part of the game and you learn to adapt to warmer or cooler temps

At the moment when feeding it's 15g starter, 100g water (around 25-27c) and 100g strong bread flour. Can't do the oven thing as our light is bloody bust. Looked at a proofing box, seems a tad too much right now...

A mug of boiling water sitting in the oven will do much the same. That's quite a low seed percentage too.

My kitchen is sitting around 17-18deg I guess, and I feed once a day with 20g starter, 40g water and 20g each white and wholemeal, with cool-lukewarm water. I could probably feed twice a day if I wanted to keep it really young but it seems fine as it is and I tend to feed once the night before and then make the levain in the morning so it gets fairly lively

Made marbled rye for the first time. Really like it alot despite having caraway seeds in it. Was also quite fun to make two separate doughs and then combining them to shape the loaves

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make the levain

How does this differ to feeding the starter, out of curiosity.

Not much, in my case. But I make a much larger amount, with a slightly lower seed starter percentage, and use it young.

It can be more useful to make the distinction if say, you feed your starter different flours than you're using for the bread, like rye, and don't want to have so much in the finished loaf, or if you keep a dryer starter and want to make the levain up as 100% hydration

Maybe try and get another starter going from that one, feeding with rye or wholemeal. Wholemeal flours seem to have better activity.

Have changed it up slightly and aim to be more consistent with feedings; 25g starter, 25g rye, 25g strong white and 50g water. Left overnight and it's obviously alive, but still a bit slow. Still think the house is going to be too cold to use it over the winter, so it's either get a proofer or store it at my girlfriends. See how the week goes...

Bought a proofer, works wonderfully.

However, when trying to make some batards this weekend I got an incredibly sticky dough that proved impossible to strengthen and when removing from a banneton just fell flat like a pancake. Any idea where I may have gone wrong? I feel it might have been when doing bulk fermentation but not sure where...

Stickiness and collapsing is usually a sign of overproofing. Underdeveloped dough might also be a problem - both contribute to those of problems, but my money is on the proof considering you’ve used a proofer

Also, you say it wouldn’t strengthen, was that when you were stretching and folding?

Yeah; mixed everything after autolyse and then did six sets of stretch and folds in a period of around two hours, then left to prove for another 90 minutes or so

Think my issue may have lied with either the stretch and folds or just not being able to deal with the hydration levels. Have followed the Tartine country loaf recipe and managed to shape up two loaves a lot, lot easier, albeit with a bit of stickiness...

Getting there I guess. Also need to improve my scoring

Had been concerned that not doing anything with my starter while on holiday might have adversely affected it.

Seems to be doing alright

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Scored a new mixer. Place where I was doing some work was getting rid, as it was broken and they’d replaced it. I was sure it would be repairable so took it to Becketts just outside Manchester and a few days later it was fixed for £96. Not bad for a mixer that would have cost 3-4K new.

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https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/bread/cheese-and-marmite-pull-apart-bread

Made this just now, it's delicious. Basically a large cheese brioche.

Reminds me have some fresh yeast from Morrisons and wondered if any one wanted any.

250g lasts ageas and usually throw it away.

Wood green area.

That's awesome, can't get the scale from the photo, but it looks huge!

It is on a standard pallet....

It is big.

Tried batards and using Chad Robertson's basic country loaf recipe from Tartine, have wound up with the below. What am I doing for it to be so fucking flat?

Nah, it was a wee pallet. It’s about 2.5 ft tall.

@cmburns So what is the history of the bread? How was the starter if a sour dough, or type of yeast. How long and how was it proved. How was it baked, in a cloche, pan open oven etc

We need more information for a forensic analysis..but what did it taste like?

@nefarious little bigger than a kenwood chef.