I cultured my starter here in STL (Saint Louis, MO) all natural at
that.. I usually retrieve the starter on Friday evening and give it a
good feeding, about 8-14 hours depending on if I want to sleep in on
Sat. I start the sponge on sat in the AM, by adding 1c water to 1.5c of
bread flour, I leave that sit in my oven loosely covered with the light
on... it gets about 82F or so in there (no pilot). I leave it until
Sunday morning, so I guess about 16 hrs or so of time goes by...
starter usually looks good. I usually check it on sat before I go to
bed, if it does not look happy; I feed it before going to sleep. I then
spend Sunday morning hand mixing the dough, letting the first rise for
about 4-5 hr then the second for about 2...

Whew... after all the even if I give my loaves a mist or and egg wash
they seem to split and explode when they are in the oven... and when
cut they are really dense... if cut them thin and baked they make great
crackers for dips... but do not cut it for sandwiches...

I must be doing something wrong. Can anyone suggest a solution?
Thanks,
poedenon