Sourdough 2011

I have returned from nursing my mom after knee replacement surgery (she is fine and back to her old life, thanks) and the kids are all back in school, Yeah!! Time to renew my sourdough efforts.
I blended a new batch of starter 2 1/2 weeks ago and I have used it once for bread and once for blueberry muffins. I seriously over rose the bread twice so by the time I got around to baking it didn't rise well and was rather dense. The good news is that it had no bitter flavor and had a acceptable sour tang. I am now working on determining the ratio of starter to flour needed to allow the bread a long fermentation (at least 7 hours total to neutralize phytic acid and enhance nutrient content) without over proofing. This is the plan.

I added about 3/4 C. starter to 4 C. warm water to my Bosch mixing bowl at 8 a.m.. Then I added 8 C. of freshly ground Kamut flour to this mixture and blended it well. I usually add closer to 11 C. flour to my yeasted bread but decided to leave the dough rather wet since Kamut tends to absorb more liquid than other flours and I have other ingredient to add after the dough has proofed for at least 5 hours. After 5 hours (or maybe sooner if need be) I will add the remainder of the ingredients for Honey Wheat Bread and knead the dough for 10 minutes with the Bosch. I will let it rise in the bowl for the time it takes to double and then turn the mixer on again to punch it down and then shape the dough into loaves to rise before baking.