On Oct 12, 2:15 am, Eric Abrahamsen > wrote:

>... About how much salt do you use in your dough?

As Sam and Kenneth posted: 2%. Google is your best bet for finding
conversions. I entered "teaspoons to grams" as a search phrase and
this appeared...

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/gram_calc.htm

It has specific calculations for hundreds of items and will get you
going, but a gram scale with tare function makes baking (and using
books and on-line resources) easier. The MyWeigh 7000 scale is a good
bet. Google it.

As you already know, running a successful fermentation takes some
skill. I find that storing mixed dough for 12-24 hours in the
refrigerator, or cool cellar, helps the crumb and flavor a great deal.
I also run my final proof at 80-85 F. This means pushing the dough...
an oven with a light or pilot light, a heat pad within an inverted
box... there are lots simple ways to create a small warm "proofing
box". But it really helps. The effort is small, payback is large.

The third leg, (aging and proof pushing being the first two) is dough
handling. Most folks overlook this crucial area because they assume
their mixer-with-dough-hook develops good quality gluten. You might go
he

http://www.sourdoughhome.com/

and look at Mike Avery's tips and techniques page. He has a good video
stream on dough stretching and folding. Gluten forms as the flour
proteins hydrolyze. With correct handling you can align the gluten
from scattered globs to well defined sheets. These sheets then trap
fermentation gas. Trapping gas is the key to good rises and open crumb
structures. Stretching and folding is a technique to develop and
laminate gluten sheets. It works. And... it creates an extraordinary
positive feedback loop, you'll learn to feel good dough. Elasticity,
extensibility, and fermentation pressure (what the French call vigor)
are characteristics that
you should get acquainted with.

Finally, be sure, be very sure, be absolutely sure, that your starter
is well refreshed. I always start small, slaking down about 40 grams
of stiff old dough (size of walnut) and refreshing several times,
doubling each time. You do not want a cup of sour starter when you
start. That's disaster. Sour, if any, comes during the final proof
(and that's a whole 'nothr thread). I suspect a good deal of your
proofing trouble comes from lax refreshment. To get lots of gas and
to have correct acid balance which tones your gluten, you must have
good starter.