I just found out my bread dough was too cold to rise right

For months, my sourdough loaves were coming out flat and dense, no matter what I did. I was keeping my starter on the kitchen counter, but my kitchen is in a basement apartment and stays around 65 degrees. I thought that was fine. Then I watched a video from a baker in Minneapolis who said her dough needs to be at 78 degrees for a good rise. I got a cheap oven thermometer and put my dough bowl in there with just the light on. It held at 78. The next loaf I made was double the size before baking and had an open crumb I'd only dreamed of. I was basically chilling my yeast to sleep the whole time. Has anyone else had to really fight their kitchen's temperature to get things to work?

3 comments

3 Comments

noahhall6mo ago

a few degrees changes the whole flavor" - totally. I had a similar thing happen with my pizza dough. I was making it in the winter and couldn't figure out why it was always so sticky and hard to stretch. Finally realized my countertop was like 60 degrees and the dough was basically freezing. I started microwaving a cup of water for a minute and putting it in the oven with the dough, same trick as you. Night and day difference. Now I'm obsessive about checking the temp of everything, even the water I use to feed my starter. It's like the whole process is one big math problem that nobody warns you about.

noahhall7mo ago

Temperature is the secret ingredient nobody talks about.

perez.mason7mo ago

Oh man, @noahhall, you're right. I read how coffee shops obsess over water temp for pour-overs, a few degrees changes the whole flavor. Same with baking bread, a cold kitchen versus a warm one makes the dough act totally different. It's wild how such a small number on a thermometer can mess up or perfect something.