Hi Adam,
I AM a member of the list! Let's see if I can help you. About
adding extra flour, are you weighing or measuring by volume? I would
guess measuring with a cup, in which case all bets are off--there is
just too much variation in how people measure a cup of flour. This is
one of my favorite things to demonstrate in my hands-on classes--cups
of flour can weigh anywhere from 120 g to almost 200 g depending on
how they are added to the cup--a huge variation. If the extra cup
worked with the way you measured, I wouldn't worry about it. But for
the future, I highly recommend buying a cheap digital scale. Your
baking will be faster, cleaner and much more accurate.
About not getting volume, there are many possible reasons. Usually
this is because the starter just isn't active enough. Does your firm
starter quadruple in volume in 8 hours or less? If not, it's just
not ready, even if you have been using it for years, and needs more
refreshments to become fully active. My recipes use very little
starter, so they require fully active starters. Also, since it's
winter, you might not be giving the dough enough warmth to properly
rise, it needs at least 70 degrees F, and does better at even higher
temperatures. So you might need to find a warmer place for optimal
performance. If you added too much flour, and the dough was too
stiff, the starter might also have been slowed. The rule with
starters is that the warmer and wetter the dough, the faster the rise
(and the more mild the flavor, but that's a different topic). Another thought:
what kind of salt did you use and how did you measure it? If you
substituted kosher or sea salt, you might have added to much, which
would have slowed the starter. Finally, if you added too much sugar
or honey, you would have the same problem.
It can be really hard to diagnose a problem, the symptoms are few and
causes many. Let me know what you think might be the cause!
All the best,
Maggie