Struggling with sourdough

I have been interested in starting sourdough for awhile, never made bread other than dinner rolls or pizza dough so I probably jumped into the advanced class before my time.

My starter is almost a month old, she does double in side but it takes her like 12 hours to. The first thing I made with her discard was focaccia. I followed the recipe, didn’t use any yeast, it would not hold its shape, wouldn’t stay dimpled, cooked, cooled, and it was DENSEEEE!!!

My second attempt I thought my starter was ready since she was bubbly and had doubled after like 12 hours, I made a double batch due to how much I was going to discard from my jar. I mixed up the ingredients, let it rest, did sooooo may stretch and folds and coil folds, and even slammed it on the countertop to try and get the gluten to develop and it would not. She was soo goopy, wouldn’t hold her shape, was a sticky hot mess, never got smooth. Nothing. I threw them in the sourdough baskets (I’m drawing a blank on their name smh), into the fridge over night, and then into the oven after preheating. Let them cool all night, and cut them the next day. They were a little less dense but super chewy and had a hard crust.

^^I plan to turn them into croutons here soon!

My third attempt was during a mass discard bake day, just the other day actually! I had an entire jar and a half of discard that I had fed and was all bubbly and smelled sweet and yeasty. In my head this HAS to be the right time to use it, not when it smells hungry like nail polish remover.

I made mini chocolate chip muffins that turned out great, normal sized blueberry muffins which were AMAZING and pretzel bites!! (I can post recipes for anyone whos interested!) and then I attempted another go at a loaf of bread. I’ll post the recipe and steps to this final loaf;

100g of sweet yeasty and bubbly starter, 390g warm water from my tap (I use my tap in my starter and haven’t seen an issue but am trying to switch to filtered room temp water just incase), 510g of unbleached APF, an 10g of salt. Now I began this journey (as for the other two times) in a big metal bowl cuz it was the biggest one I had. I mixed it with a bread whisk, she was frothy, then clumpy, then I used my hands to give her a gentle knead and she was not sticky from the get go! I was sooo excited!

When I let her rest for an hour, I did three sets of stretch and folds with 30 minutes in between. She was doing r her great, getting smooth, and not sticky. I did two rounds of coil folds with 30 minutes in between for extra gluten building because she still wasn’t holding her shape.

I started watching more videos which said not to use metal bowls so I quickly found the biggest glass one I had and transferred her over, and she seemed fine. After two sets of additional coil folds I could see the bubbles at the top and below but she still was not holding her shape at all.

At this point it had been so many hours and she was becoming so sticky and melting faster and faster. I took her out and tried working with her for several long minutes on the counter but it was a disaster. Idk what happened, she was doing the best ever and then it went dow hill so fast. It had gotten so late so I threw her in the fridge overnight and tried to continue the next day but she was a sticky goopy mess. I thought maybe it was the stater had eaten the flour and was now hungry so I added more flour and kneaded her, she got all thick and was holding her shape, but it was so late and I was worried about leaving her in the fridge again and that she would be sticky in the morning so….

I stretched her out as much as I could and folded her all up nice, rolled her into a round ball, and I let her rest in the basket thing for an hour, she didn’t double. I didn’t see signs of bubbles but crossed my fingers and threw her in oven out of impatience. This was the worst loaf I’ve ever had. She didn’t rise, she looked anemic even after 30 minutes in the Dutch oven at 450°F with the lid on, and an additional 20 with it off.

She was tinnny! She was so colorless. I knew it was fucked. But I waited till she cooled down enough to touch and cut her open early. It was as dense as the focaccia….

So here’s what I’m thinking and need advice;

I think my house is too cold for sourdough, the starter takes so long to double because we keep the home at 75° and it’s draft cuz it’s an old fixer upper.

When it does double and smells good and not hangry, it works beautiful but the gluten can’t develop fast enough because of how cold it is (I have tried putting it in the oven with the light on but I don’t think it’s enough)

Idk what to do, I have a bread proof setting but that would be between 80-100° which is good but also bad for the bacteria. I wanna be able to make good sourdough but I’m worried I just can’t in a cold house.