Hi, Charles. I apologize for not replying to you sooner! I just haven't looked at this blog in a while. But, let me try to help you with your questions.
First of all, you must be sure that your starter has fully developed before you make it into a sponge. You want to see many bubbles and layers of foam, and you want it to have the characteristic SRB smell. If it doesn't look like this, then your sponge, obviously, will not be successful.
I'm not sure if an unfailed starter was why your sponge did not work, but it may have been. Although, from what you said, it sounded like your starter was successful. So, if this was not the case,then a couple of other reasons why a sponge might not work are: you didn't add enough flour to it (add just enough to have the consistency of thin pancake batter) or you may not have kept it warm enough (it should be around 104 degrees, the same as your starter). How long did you allow the sponge to work? It should take 1 and a half to 2 hours.
As for your questions:
1. I don 't let the milk cook after I scald it. I just add it right away.
2. The recipes for the sponge and dough vary. If you go to my SRB website (
http://home.comcast.net/~petsonk/), you can see the recipes there that I use; recipe #1 and recipe #2.
I hope this helps! I saw on here just now where I can ask to be notified if a reply comes in, so, hopefully, I will be able to answer you much sooner next time. As you might guess, I'm not a blogger, and I need to get better at it.
Good luck!! It's just great that you are attempting to make this wonderful bread. I'm happy to answer more questions for you, any time.
Susan