No worries, Confused - it's a confusing subject! By ratio, people mean the same ratio of flour and water to one another - not the same ratio of flour and water to the existing starter. Bottom line, always feed with equal amounts flour and water, BY WEIGHT (about 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup water). Bread flour is fine to use; since it's higher protein than all-purpose, you might want to change that 1:1 feeding ratio a tiny bit, increasing the water by a couple of teaspoons. And as for kneading - you don't knead starter, so I assume you're talking about bread dough. And there's no pat answer. Kneading is used to develop the dough's gluten, which will allow it to rise. You can develop gluten simply by mixing the dough ingredients together and, without any kneading at all, letting them sit: first for a few hours at room temperature, then overnight in the fridge. This is called the "no-knead" method. At the other end of the scale, you can knead dough by hand for 20 minutes, and it'll probably be fine - though it's also not necessary, unless you're kneading extremely slowly and gently. Using a stand mixer at medium speed, I usually knead about 7 minutes. The point is less the time you spend, and more the final texture of the dough - whatever it takes to get a dough that's cohesive, fairly smooth, and fairly elastic and springy, that's how long you spend kneading. Hope this helps - remember, the folks on our baker's hotline – 855-371-BAKE (2253) – are a great resource, should you have any further questions as you go along. Good luck! PJH

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