Hi Dodi, I'm so glad to hear that your starter is up and running, and that you've already achieved such great success with your bread baking! That's wonderful news! In terms of your baking process, if you're using a lidded pot there is no need to add steam to the oven environment, since the lid traps the moisture that the bread gives off during baking. Just take the lid off about halfway through the bake, and you'll have a beautiful, crusty loaf. When it comes to "bulking up" your starter in preparation for baking I encourage you to think about how much extra starter you need, and how much you want remaining. If you have a scale, it's easy to produce exactly the amount of starter you want.

One more consideration that can be helpful, especially for summertime baking: if you're planning the final feeding to occur overnight, and it's very warm in your house this time of year, you might consider reducing the amount of starter you're feeding, to help slow things down and make it more likely that your starter will be at its peak when it comes time for baking the next morning.

For example, if you need 454g of starter, plus 113g left over, you might want to try a 1:4:4 ratio of starter:water:flour (by weight) for the final feeding before baking. It's helpful to think of this feeding as having 9 parts (1+4+4).  454 + 113 = 567 (we'll round up to 585). 585 divided by 9 = 65. So, that final feeding might look like: 65g starter + 260g water + 260g flour. Feeding your starter in this way will allow for more generations of growth of both the yeast and friendly bacteria, and will make it more likely that your starter will be at the right point when it comes time for baking. 

If your home is fairly cool this time of year (68 degrees or less), then you may be fine sticking to the 1:1:1 ratio, or adopting something more like 1:2:2, but keep this technique in your sourdough tool box in case you ever need it. 

I hope this helps. Happy baking! 

Barb

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