On the Sourdough Home website it states:

The last wrinkle is that when you are using sourdough or other preferments the rule of 240 becomes the rule of 320. Take the temperature of the sourdough or other preferment as well as the temperature of the flour, water and room. Subract all from 320, rather than 240. If you are using Celsius, this becomes the rule of 100.

http://www.sourdoughhome.com/bakingintro2.html

Has anyone heard of this? Any insight? A google search has turned up nothing so far. It seems to me he has included too many parameters.

Hello Everyone!

Scotch Baps.

Hand mix.   

Dough Temperature.             24˚ Centigrade.

Yield,  9  @ 70g.  660g.         Includes  5% excess for process loss.

Bulk Fermentation Time.      120 mins

Knock Back.                           90  mins

Here is a formula and method for a small batch.  When upping the yield, go by the %s and not the given recipe. 

%

100                  Strong Flour   390g.

59                    Water              230g.

5                      Butter             20g.

2                      Yeast               7.75g.

2                      Salt                 7.75g.

2                      Sugar              7.75g.

Dough Temperature Calculation.         There are several ways to do this.  I will give you a basic one to start with, if you want more involved, please contact me.

Take the temperature of your FLOUR    Subtract the number from your DOUBLE THE DOUGH TEMPERATURE. This will give you your  WATER  Temperature.

E.g.   Flour is  20 C.  So,   20 taken from 48 = 28.  Which is your  WATER TEMPERATURE

METHOD.     Put your tempered water in a bowl, add your yeast and disperse.  Add the flour and the other ingredients on top of that.  Bring it all together, trying to keep one hand clean.  I like to use a plastic scraper to help with this.

Tip your bowl onto a work surface; continue to combine with one hand and your scraper.  Work the dough with both hands now, stretching, tearing and turning.  Note.  Your B.F.T time starts from the point when the dough has roughly come together and not when you have finished mixing.  Continue to extend and tear the dough, it should become very smooth and elastic, being able to extend a long way before tearing.  I give my dough 15 to 20 minutes of hand mixing but for small rolls like these, you can get by on 5 to 10 minutes.

Lightly mold the dough into a round, place back into the bowl, cover and leave for the remainder of the time before knock back.   I.e.  20 minutes  from 90 gives 70 minutes in the bowl.  When the knock back time is reached, give another minute or so gentle kneading to expel the gas.  Return to the bowl and cover for the remaining allotted time.

When the fermentation time is up, take the dough and scale off @ 70g.  Try to do this in one piece and not end up with several little bits making up the 70g.  Cover the pieces with either plastic or a damp cloth.  Mold the dough pieces into round shapes, cover and rest for 5 minutes then re mold and cover.  Leave for 10 minutes to relax.

Pin out to slight oval shapes, roughly 4 by 3 inches in size.  Wash the surface of each dough piece with water and dip into flour (to give a good crust).  Place onto a tray, dusted with semolina.  Cover with a light cloth, plastic sheet or a tin etc. Whatever works for you.  Leave at room temperature until doubled up and a light touch with a finger leaves a slight indent. This is around 40 minutes in my kitchen.

Bake @  232C.  450F.  for around 10 minutes. 

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Hello all,

Does anyone have a system of temperature for measuring how long a proof should take? I mean if I'm proofing my normal sourdough as fast as possible I try to maintain the temp. at 26/7 degrees C. and at that temperature the bulk rise and final proof together take about 6 hrs.  I was wondering if anyone has a way of calculating fairly accurately how much slower the dough works when you lower the temperature, it seems fairly general knowledge that lowering the temp. one degree slows the yeast down by 10%, so at 21/22 C the rise takes twice as long. Clearly however this starts to change as you go lower as the dough doesn't completely stop at 4 degrees in the fridge. A night in the fridge for me, let's say 10 hours, is usually equivalent to about 2hrs rising.  Therefore I wondered if anyone has tried to work out exactly how much longer things take at lower temperatures. Just curious, I tend to like to have things all worked out like that, it's probably partly because of I'm not all that confident about telling when my dough is ready for the oven.

Thanks,

Daniel

I mostly use PR's formulas, and he calls for about 77º-81º after kneading. My dough never gets  there; usually its around 71-73º. Is this important? Doesn't the temperature in the room have an effect? Our kitchen is usually about 66-67º before the oven goes on.

BH

Hi all,

Newb here and I hope my questions not been covered before so here goes.  When I disolve my yeast recipes typically say 110-115f degrees but then after mixing (kitchen aide stand mixer) my dough temperature is very much warmer than what I understand it should be.  90 as opposed to 75ish?  So, what's more important here, my water temp to disolve yeast or dough temperature...or am I completely mixed up?  I'd really appreciate some help and clarification here!

Thanks,

Darryl

OK I'm in pondering mode... 

Apart from fermentation time (and the indirect effects that this has on acidity levels, breakdown of starches etc.), I can't think of any other reasons why dough temperature should affect the quality of bread. 

I'm particularly interested to learn if dough temperature has a direct effect on gluten...do higher temperatures favour elasticity or extensibility? 

Perhaps dough temperature affects enzyme activity...and therefore protease....hence the elasticity/extensibility....

Perhaps certain amylases are more efficient at higher temperatures and therefore different sugars are available...important for sourdough since lactobaciili metabolise sugars differently to yeast...?

Do particular flours have specific 'ideal' dough temperatures...and if so, why? It's all a mystery to me!

As always, any information and help is much appreciated.

Thanks

FP

Yesterday I started my first sourdough loaf. I usually prefer a no-knead approach, but decided to knead this mostly whole wheat dough with my stand mixer. It was kneaded for 12 minutes at 4 in a Delonghi/Kenwood. At the end, there were great gluten strands, and the dough was at about body temperature - 98F or so. Did I ruin my dough letting it get this warm? I immediately stuck it in the fridge - where it didn't seem to rise much if any - overnight. After 2 hours on the counter it still hadn't warmed up, so I don't know if it will rise now.