What Are Your Sourdough Tips?

My first loaf of the season -- extra tangy from a starter that had been dormant for 10 months.

I know there are a few of us here that make or have made sourdough bread and keep or kept a sourdough starter. So I thought I'd ask you friends for tips.

Every January I get my starter out of the fridge and work to revive it. Winter is not the best time of year to do sourdough in a house that stays around 64 degrees F during the day and dips down to about 61 degrees F at night. Starters generally don't do very well in colder temps. But this is the time of year that I actually have time to babysit a starter.

Here are my two tips for keeping a starter or rising dough warmer in a cold house.

1) When I've got a bowl of dough to rise, I set the bowl over another bowl of warm water. The top bowl (with the dough in it) sits an inch or so above the water level of the lower bowl. And the water is just warm and not hot. During the day I periodically rewarm the bowl of water in the microwave. Just before bed at night (if allowing to rise over night) I rewarm the water one last time. It's enough to give my dough a boost.

2) For the starter itself, I leave it on the counter just behind the warming bowl and on top of a dish towel. We have quartz countertops, which stay cool to the touch all day and all night long. Placing a dish towel underneath the jar of starter insulates it just a smidge against the cold countertop.

What have you learned about making sourdough over years? Any tips for lofty loaves? What do you do to revive a dormant starter when it has sat in the fridge for a while? Do you have a particular spot in your kitchen for proofing dough or keeping a starter vibrant?