Sourdough Tips: Beat The Heat
Beginners Tips: Beat the Heat
Let me start out by saying that I have not completely resolved the issue of temperature control in the summer months. I live in New York City and central air conditioning is uncommon. Most people have window air conditioners that are strategically placed in certain rooms like the bedrooms and the living room. The kitchens typically do not have priority. I do not have air conditioning in my kitchen and I must say that properly proofing my bread has become quite the difficult task. However I think I have come close to developing a method to consistently mix and bake bread in 90+ degree temperatures.
Ice Water
So most sourdough recipes call for using “lukewarm” “body temperature” “80-100 degree” water when baking sourdough. Warm water will optimize the fermentation of the sourdough starter in your bread, and if you have a climate controlled kitchen most of my methods won’t be necessary for you.
Side note even if you do have air conditioning in your kitchen you will most definitely still need to adapt. Humidity and ambient temperatures are just higher in the summer months.
The first thing that I have done to try and beat the heat is use ice water. Not cold tap water, literally ice water. Ice water is very effective at slowing everything down and if you’re in an area where its not as hot over the summer months than this might be enough for you. However even though the fermentation process is slowed, once the dough reaches ambient temp, meaning 90+ degrees. It’s going to take a long time to cool it down and stop the fermentation process. So even though I used cold water, I still had several loaves of bread overproof in the refrigerator because it just takes too long to cool them down.
Cut Times in Half
I don’t use time when I proof my bread, I go by volume. I place my dough in clear buckets for bulk fermentation. This way I can track the rise of the dough and when its doubled or almost doubled I turn it out to begin the the final process of pre-shape and final shape.
However if I allow the dough to double as I typically do in cooler months the dough will have way too much residual heat in it to properly proof in the fridge over night. So instead of doubling I have found that allowing the dough to rise 50% is better than doubling. This way, even though the dough will still rise in the fridge, it will be cooling off and with any luck the fermentation process will slow down enough to prevent it from over proofing.
Conclusion
So by using ice water and cutting bulk times in half, I have achieved pretty good results in creating the consistently proofed bread that I have grown accustom to in the cooler months. Full disclosure, I still have experienced over proofed loaves even with these methods. The only other thing that I can conclude is that in the summer I have to take even more special care at paying attention to the doughs. If its really hot in your kitchen, even your refrigerator is going to struggle staying cool. A probe thermometer and an infrared laser thermometer are vital tools for sourdough bakers. If your doughs internal temp is above 85 degrees then you need to shape it and get in the fridge, or get ready to bake it. If you wait for it to double or bench rest and the internal temp gets to ambient temp, meaning 90+ degrees, unless you put it in the freezer your dough will overproof in the fridge, because its just going to take too long to cool it down. If your fridge is above 60 degrees because its too hot out then your dough is going to struggle to cool off. You need to use the laser thermometer to find the coolest part of your fridge. Bottom line, adapting to the summer months is going to be trial and error, and by the time we get used to baking bread in 90+ degree heat, the summer will be over.