Bread

Are you sure you can't reinvigorate it? Give it a little feed every day over the course of a week. 25g of both water and (organic if possible) flour should do the trick.
Leave it out of the fridge with the lid only on loosely or just covered by a cloth to keep flies out (you want to let oxygen in and the carbon dioxide out). Store it in the airing cupboard of you want to give it a boost, but make sure there is plenty of room for bublling up if you do this and check at least daily.

Nah dead, tried to bring it back to life. Properly dead.

Sure, you're in London?

Yep, in Homerton or Stoke Newington most days.

1hr autolyse, about 16hr total proof in a cool part of the flat.

Probably could have done with 5 mins more in the oven, should have trusted my gut instinct but was intrigued to see how short I could go on the bake.

Pretty please with the airation in the crust, should make good toast.

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And first attempt at these. Discovered a way of keeping them in the middle of the pan so I could get on with other stuff.

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Got jealous of @cgg baking again so I instagram-story-challenged him: here's my white country loaf!

Discovered a way of keeping them in the middle

lol

Seriously though it's amazing what you guys are baking lately, feels like a lot of people have stepped up their game considerably in the last years!

#rep

Tartine and tartine 3 are £2.84 on amazon kindle at the mo.

Last two loaves have been a bit like this, a bit dense, and not much sour flavor. Does this mean my starter is dying, or I'm not using enough of it? Used 200g each time. I might give it a few feed cycles to pump it up a bit anyway.

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Potentially you're over-proofing it. 16hrs is a long time at even a cool temperature, if you want sour you need to retard it properly in the fridge for that time or more, which will slow down the action of the yeast and allow the lacto-bacteria to produce the flavour you want. And as the yeast won't have exhausted itself, the dough should remain airier. Once shaped, proof for maybe an hour and chuck it in the fridge for 12hrs+

The texture suggests a firm dough. If you want more holes, wetter dough may help.

@Silly_Savage
I've found as my house has gotten colder recently the dough is "tighter" when working it. It doesn't stretch as easily and kneading is harder. Keeping the dough a bit warmer (I put it the bowl by the radiator or fire while it rests) helps loosen it and let it relax more.

In the pic up there the bubbles are bigger toward the top of the loaf, so possibly under proofed resulting in the steam blowing bubbles up as you bake (the lower bubbles having more weight on them and not inflating like the higher ones). But also possibly over proofed as TvH says with the weight of the dough collapsing the smaller bubbles.

Your starter will go through cycles as the balance of microorganisms (yeasts/bacteria) adjusts. Sometimes you will get a real tangy smell (from the lactoc acid bacteria), sometimes it's more yeast-y (from the yeast obviously). The texture can vary a lot as well. Sometimes I get a really strong gluten structure developing in my starter and others it's just slop.
Generally neglecting a starter a bit will see the yeasts start to die off/go dormant and the lactic acid bacteria take over a bit so you could try that with a bit of your starter if you wanted a tangy "shot" to add (never tried this myself but I keep a rye starter and a wheat starter and often use a mix of the rye which is much more tangy smelling and the wheat which is generally more balanced - 50g rye and 150g wheat to 400g flour).

yeast exhausted itself

Quite possibly this, combined with the starter being a bit listless to start with. It was pretty cool in the kitchen that night, and it held its shape well when I turned it out, so I don't think it was over-proofed in the sense that gluten structure had remained in tact.

Gonna feed the start up for a few days and get it good and lively again.

My rye starter seems to be back in the swing of things, so much more pleased with the aeration and rise I am getting.
happy to share with @lynx if you are still looking... I am in NW10

^looks awesome.

Inspired by this bread chat to do some baking myself.

Could also be a bit cold going in the oven? For proofing and temperatures Nancy Silverton has this to say:

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fucking nice

Flatbread. Done in the heavy pan on the stove with plenty of chilli oil. Consumed with smoked houmous. Lush.

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Looks very good.

Well I pumped up my starter and tried with a much shorter proof. Finger test suggested it was good to go after a couple of hours... Epic fail. Stoped the bake halfway as it obviously wasn't going anywhere.

Another in the fridge since last night, shaped this morning, will bake tonight once it's warmed up again.

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Recipe?

HFW magic bread from River Cottage Veg book

https://thebondicook.com/2013/01/10/hughs-magic-dough/