In this issue I am continuing to discuss how the weather affects making sourdough. But in case you haven’t read my previous articles, let me first recap:
One of the key things to know about making sourdough successfully is how the weather, especially heat and cold, affects making your dough. Heat speeds up the proving process which can lead to overproofing, and cold slows it down, which can lead to underproofing. Both outcomes can affect how your loaf bakes. Heat can also make your starter ferment faster and become thinner than it was, and a thin starter is also a weak starter, which will lead to issues with proofing dough. This can all make making sourdough seem like a science project, but I am here to tell you that it is really much simpler than that and easy to control.
Contrary to what many other sourdough bakers teach, I teach that we can easily work with our environments, rather than against them, or trying to control them. We don’t need special gadgets, just a room thermometer and an understanding about the weather and sourdough. As soon as I understood this connection and the changes that heat, cold and humidity make to dough making, it exponentially improved my sourdough. I was able to understand the nuances of proofing, and I learned how to be able to read and manage my dough.
In previous issues of Pastry Arts, I have discussed how the cold temperatures of winter affect making sourdough and how to overcome them. In this issue I am talking about the summer and hot temperatures. Making sourdough can seem challenging in any environment, but when you add heat and humidity to the mix, it can seem even more so, which is why some home bakers stop making sourdough completely when the temperatures rise, but you don’t need to.
Heat will make your starter and your doughs ferment and grow faster. It can therefore make your starter become thin and hungry. The heat can lead to overproofed doughs. Humidity will only increase that and will also add moisture to your starter or your dough, which can also affect your baked loaf.
These are my top tips for making sourdough in hot temperatures:
Buy a thermometer
My first and strongest advice is to get a thermometer for your kitchen that reads temperature and humidity. This will be your best friend in understanding how to make sourdough successfully and consistently in a hot and humid environment.
Start a journal
I highly recommend starting a journal to log the activity of your starter and your dough making to assist you with making sourdough throughout the year where you live. This can become an invaluable reference book for you.
Make notes
Every time you feed your starter or make dough, always note the time, the room temperature and the humidity percentage. Once your starter has responded and grown in size or the dough has proofed to where you want it to be, make a note of how long it took to get to that point and note the temperature and humidity again. Repeat this process over an entire year and you will be able to produce a detailed pattern of behavior in your kitchen that you can refer to whenever you want to make sourdough in the future. I highly recommend feeding your starter when you will be able to watch it.
Keep watch
In high temperatures, sourdough starter can very easily need only two to three hours after feeding before it is ready to use. By being available and watching your starter, you’ll be able to catch when your starter has doubled in size and ready to use. If you don’t watch it, your starter will grow and rise in the jar. Then it will drop back down, and become hungry, thin and weak. If this happens, your starter will not be ruined; it will just need feeding again before you can use it.
Use less water
If your starter becomes thin, feed it and give it its portion of flour first, then pour in only as much water as it needs to make it really thick again. Stir it well, replace the lid loosely and leave it to grow and respond. This will rebuild the strength in your starter; keep in mind that thicker is always better. You can do this as often as you need to. In this instance, do not worry about feeding it equal weights of flour and water; watch your starter and get to know its behavior and what it needs. This is far more important than using equal weights of flour and water in hot and/or humid environments. And this is why your notes will help as you will really get to know your starter.
Use cold water
Use cold water in your starter and your dough to help slow down their activity in the heat. I never use warm water in my standard doughs anyway, but even less so in warm weather, as it only adds extra heat to the dough and speeds up the proofing process.
Use less starter
There’s a really simple way to prevent dough from overproofing, whatever the time of year or temperatures: give it less starter and, therefore, less power. The sourdough starter in our dough is what makes the dough ferment and grow, and by using less in your dough, you can control the speed at which your dough grows and responds. I use this trick a lot, all year-round, especially when I need to have dough fully proofed for teaching a class, and I need to control the timing. Controlling and changing the amount of starter you use puts you in full control of the whole process.
Go low
You can use a lot less starter than you think in order to proof dough fully and at the same time offset the heat, as little as 5-10g if you need to. This will slow down the proofing process right down and will prevent overproofing. Nothing else in the recipe needs to be changed (unless you need to amend the water for the following reasons):
High humidity
In high-humidity conditions, when the humidity reaches over 70% in your kitchen, dough will absorb extra moisture from the air, producing a loose and bubbly dough, which will be hard to handle and work with. By using less water, you can offset the humidity. Reduce the amount of water in your dough by 25g initially and see what difference it makes. If your dough starts off quite stiff as you’re working with it, don’t worry; it will loosen. And, as always, keep notes about the time, temperature, humidity and what you’ve done.
If necessary, use even less water. It’s okay to use 275-300g water if that’s what works. Find the sweet spot for your dough.
The fridge
If in doubt or if you are worried about leaving the dough out to proof overnight as per my master recipe, put the dough in its bowl, still covered, into the fridge when you go to bed and take it out again the next morning. Place the bowl back onto the counter and allow it time to finish proofing while you can watch it.
Daytime proofing
If proofing dough overnight on the counter makes you nervous, proof your dough during the day when you can be there to watch. Use the standard amount of starter required in the recipe that you’re using in your dough. Use less water if it is humid, as above, and watch the dough like a hawk. Move it into the banneton and into the fridge as soon as it doubles in size.
Danger zone
If your dough becomes very bubbly on the surface and is soft and sticky and hard to manage, it is too wet either from added moisture, overproofing or both. It may look fun and impressive, but bubbly dough is problematic dough. In this instance, if the dough still has some structure and body to it, try pulling the dough into a tight ball and placing it smooth side up into a prepared loaf pan. This will hold the dough and give it some support when you bake it. Then over the loaf pan, place it into the fridge and proof the dough again. The cold will stop the dough from still fermenting from the heat that it’s holding. Once the dough reaches level with the top of the pan, bake it directly from the fridge as per your recipe.
Make flatbreads
If your dough is really unmanageable, don’t waste it; you can still use it to make focaccia. Or, if it’s really liquified, stir in some milk and make pancakes, or add yogurt and make flatbreads. Find details and recipes on my website and in my books. Never waste dough. Plus, overproofed dough has a lot of great flavor from all that extra fermentation!
Bake loaves
Once the dough is baked, leave it at least an hour before slicing into it. But if you live in a very humid place, don’t leave it on the counter for several hours, otherwise the humidity can make the crust soften and cause the inside to become damp. In this instance, slice into it and enjoy while it’s still crusty.
A final top tip
If you are trying a sourdough recipe that does not refer to room temperature, you are missing information, and you do not have the full recipe or guidance for making a successful loaf. In this instance, I highly recommend that you ask the recipe writer for more details, especially if you have had any previous issues with the baked outcome of your loaves.
Elaine Boddy, Foodbod Sourdough: https://foodbodsourdough.com/
(This article appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)
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