Perhaps it was COVID brain or my total aversion to discarding perfectly good starter, but I have been making 8 baton-shaped loaves a week (a local community kitchen requested some), without any discard, with two starters - one from a friend and one from KA which resurrected itself after 3 months of neglect in the back of the fridge last March. I rotate the starters, using each once a week; I take it out of the fridge the day before baking and that evening add enough water and flour in equal amounts that the whole will weigh 22-24 ounces. In the morning, greeted by happy bubbling starter, I mostly follow the KA recipe - reducing flour by 1 ounce and adding an extra ounce of water in the winter to counter the dry air in my house. I add the salt with the flour, and sometimes add 2 extra ounces of whole wheat and reduce the bread flour accordingly. (Back when I couldn't get either of these flours, I baked with all-purpose flour, and it was fine - but a little less flavorful.) The last rise, having shaped 4 batons, is in KA baguette pans, 2 loaves to a pan to keep them from sticking together. A brush of either cream or egg wash and slashing oblique parallel lines 25 minutes or so before baking at 450 for 21 minutes. I love these other ideas - at this point, I'm game for anything! I'm surprised at how flexible we can be.

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