Well, I thought today, what the heck, I will give it a shot. I fed my
starter at 7 AM, and then at around 2 PM, I gave it a good stir, and poured
out a cup into a mixing bowl. I proceeded to add the necessary flour, water
and oil to make a nice dough. I then put the dough into an oiled bowl,
covered, in the oven to proof. Well, its been 2 hours, and my dough has
doubled in size. I am not sure whether to punch down, add salt and
continue, or to let it proof a while longer, possibly creating more
sourdough taste? Any suggestions?

Sourdough Cookie

CookieChick wrote:
> Well, I thought today, what the heck, I will give it a shot. I fed my
> starter at 7 AM, and then at around 2 PM, I gave it a good stir, and poured
> out a cup into a mixing bowl. I proceeded to add the necessary flour, water
> and oil to make a nice dough. I then put the dough into an oiled bowl,
> covered, in the oven to proof. Well, its been 2 hours, and my dough has
> doubled in size. I am not sure whether to punch down, add salt and
> continue, or to let it proof a while longer, possibly creating more
> sourdough taste? Any suggestions?
>
> Sourdough Cookie

Hi Cookie. Good on you for your first go. : -)

Most people add salt at the stage of adding the final flour and water.
I leave it half and hour after the first couple stirs with a spoon as I
think it makes a small difference to the dough taking up water, it is
small but this rest means I don't have to knead for more than a minute.
How long you leave it before shaping depends on how much starter you
added, ''til double is a simple rule of thumb. Then again how long you
leave it depends again on how much starter you added and how sour you
want the bread. Check out the FAQ for a better explanation. : -)

http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughqa.html
http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/howdoist...oughbread.html

TG