The Pancake Saga Part V

I don't know if I'll ever actually get caught up with this story but I promise I'll try.

This week I had a new challenge: We weren't even sure that the yeast was still alive!  I'm not sure how it would have died, but for some reason even letting the sourdough rise overnight in the oven with the light on seemed not to make the starter smell sourdoughy nor was it all that bubbly.

What I realized is that only recently had I switched from bleached flour to unbleached.  It seems the starter was doing its job but the more refined flour was more reactive to the yeast.  On the other hand, according to everything I read, unbleached is better for the yeast and will produce better flavor.  I'm also not sure that there was all that much yeast in my overnight starter as, only a day before, I took a cup out and gave it to a friend and fed the starter.  I think I forgot to leave it out to get to room temperature so it seemed to not be all that "hot."

In any case, I made a very simple recipe consisting of:
2 cups starter (warmed over night)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3 tsp oil
2 tbsp soda (baking soda)

The pancakes were light and fluffy!  They rose just like they're supposed to when adding the soda and they had a pretty good sourdough flavor but they still seemed a little weak.

I'm getting closer.