Poolish FAIL!!!

[Serpentelli]

OK I am committed to making this work so I need help:

I used Varasano's recipe for dough. Followed it to the letter.

Caputo flour, water, salt and apparently active sourdough starter that I had made from a culture from sourdo.com. How did I know it was active? Well I fed it at 8 am and by 2 pm it had overflowed the 1 quart jar and run all over the floor. The starter was about ten days old.

Dough rose in the fridge at about 50 degrees for 3 days. Allowed to come to room temp for 2-3 hours before using. WFO at about 875

PERFECT leoparding, top and bottom char but ZERO air in the crust. None. Not a bubble to be found. My test sujects claimed to love the "flatbread style" but it was a huge downer for my first try. It was raining like crazy so there are no pics, sorry!

So my assumption is that my starter has not enough yeast activity. And yet I continue to feed it and it grows. WITH BUBBLES!

If there's anyone that can give me tips without my having pics please do so! I will not repeat the same mistake again, so I don't think I'll ever have pics of this particular dough/pizza.

[TXCraig1]

The refrigerator is not your friend with sourdough ("SD").  At refrigerator temps, you will have next to no activity with SD. It sound like your culture is fine. I prefer 48 hours at 65F. You will get more flavor in 48 hours at 65F than you will in a week at 40F. I use 1.3-1.5% culture (as a % of the flour weight). I'd start here:

100% Caputo Pizzeria
63% water
3% salt
1.4% fully active culture

Here is some info that might help: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,20479.0.html

Happy to help with any question you might have after you look this over.

[Serpentelli]

So my wife left one of the dough balls out at room temp (70-72 degrees) for about 24 hours and guess what --- the dough rose......

I threw it in the indoor electric oven at 500 just to see what would happen and I was pleasantly surprised. So I will follow TX Craigs advice next time and do a much higher bulk ferment temp. 

Very interesting

[Howard]

So my wife left one of the dough balls out at room temp (70-72 degrees) for about 24 hours and guess what --- the dough rose......

I threw it in the indoor electric oven at 500 just to see what would happen and I was pleasantly surprised. So I will follow TX Craigs advice next time and do a much higher bulk ferment temp. 

Very interesting

Serpentelli, I use a homemade starter that rises in the fridge, even while placed on the bottom shelf. I guess it didn't get the memo . But I only refrigerate it if I'm not going to use it within a two day period. When I remove it from the fridge I allow it to rise again from morning to evening (I never bake with it if remotely still cool/cold). The longest I've left it in the fridge was five days. I almost threw it out but I made a pizza with it and it was delicious. I wouldn't go any longer, no more than three days.

But this does bring up an interesting question(s). On sourdo.com the cultures they offer come from various parts of the world. From desert regions (Saudi Arabia/Egypt) to cold climate regions (Finland/Russia) and points in between. Isn't it possible that sourdough cultures from warmer parts of the world become inactive in cold temperatures while a culture originating from Finland might remain active? And when Yukon prospectors used their cultures in Alaska in the late 1800's I doubt they always had the benefit of balmy 65 degree weather. My homemade culture originated in central Texas so I have no idea why it remains active and rises while refrigerated. I've only kept it going for three months now so I have WAY more questions than answers. That's the fun part.