The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

temperature

Kashipan's picture

Pullman Loaf in a Temperature Challenged Oven

October 14, 2012 - 5:45pm -- Kashipan
Forums: 

Hello all!  I haven't been here in ages, but I've got another Pullman loaf question or two for you.

I live in Japan where most of the ovens for the home are electric and tiny.  Not only that, but my particular oven is temperature challenged for some reason, so at the higher temps, it goes up to 210C and then jumps to 250C.  There's no in-between.  >_<  I've checked the manual, and there does not seem to be a way around this, and we can't afford an expensive new oven right now, so I have to learn to live with it.

Nickisafoodie's picture
Nickisafoodie

I recently came across a gadget that can be used to maintain starter temperatures in a rather easy way.  The LUX WIN100 is a programmable thermostat with built in sensor that also has an outlet.  It is designed for room air conditions or heaters where a constant temperature is desired.  The unit plugs in and when the desired temperature is reached, the power cuts off.  After cooling down a degree or two, it comes back on keeping a rather constant heat.

So can this be used for managing a starter at a constant temperature?  I took a large cardboard box, put the device, a 100 watt lamp, and the plastic wrapped bowl holding the starter on the room rug.  Lamp is plugged into device, and device is plugged into an extension cord coming out to wall outlet.  Simply place the box upside down on all of it with flaps open and spread out on the floor.  

The unit was on the floor next to the bowl. The sensor worked surprisingly well!  I periodically tested the culture with my laser thermometer and it was accurate to within 1-2 degrees.

Rather than caught up in trying to time multiple stages at multiple temperatures, it is far easier to use the “hold” function, and set to the desired temperature and it takes about 2 second to set to another temperature.

For my 55% Detmolder Rye Bread method, I built the starter as follows:

Freshen: 5 hours at 79°, followed by the basic sour at 76° for 18 hours, followed by full sour at 86° for 4 hours, with bulk fermentation and proofing at 82°.  This certainly will work for single stage.  So not as pretty as a commercial proofing chamber, it is cheap and easy. 

The unit costs about $35 online, but can be as high as $65 so shop around if you wish to find one…

Shyamala's picture

At what temperature does flour go rancid when milling?

March 21, 2012 - 11:13am -- Shyamala

Hello.  I recently just purchased the Vita-Mix dry container for milling grain.  I freeze the grain so the temperature doesn't get too high, but even so to get a fine/finer grind I have to mill for about 1 min 20 sec.  The flour seems quite warm.  I have taken the temperature of the flour immediately after grinding, but I have been unable to find at which temperature the enzymes break down.  Does anyone have any information on this? 

sadears's picture

Optimum temperature

December 16, 2011 - 5:17pm -- sadears
Forums: 

After several nasty results years ago, I attempted yet again to bake a decent bread. I have had massive success...

I use a very wet dough and bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, then turn it for another 15-20 minutes.

Just one problem...

Obtaining the optimum temp of 200 degrees.  I do one of two things...take it out about 198 degrees, or leave it in for what seems forever and if I'm lucky it reaches 200 degrees.

What should I do...lower the temp for longer or raise it.

 

Boboshempy's picture

Best Overnight Proofing Temperature

February 14, 2011 - 7:36am -- Boboshempy

I am able to control the temperature of my sourdough loaves for overnight retarding and proofing and I wanted to get everyone's opinion of what you think the best temperature is and why. There has been a bunch of recent thoughts and discussion on this circulating in books and whatnot and I wanted to put this question out there to the masters.

Thanks!

Nick

 

gary.turner's picture
gary.turner

Since the liquids in nearly every dough need to be tempered, I went looking for some straight forward, repeatable method to get the temperature I wanted. My answer was to use the microwave. The next step was to figure out how to get the right time for any mass of water or milk, and for any temperature change.

We can see that the time required (Sec) is proportional to the mass of the water (M) and to the change in temperature (ΔT), multiplied by some constant (C). 

M × ΔT = C × Sec

Rearranging to solve for the time; Sec = M × ΔT / C

With my microwave oven, the constant is 312.5 for weight in grams and temp in Fahrenheit. There's a kink in the formula though. My oven requires about 3 seconds to come up to speed, so I add that to the calculated time. For example, let's say I have 350g of  40F milk from the frig that needs to be 65F for an intensively mixed Vienna style dough. I need to raise the temp by 25F, so 350×25/312.5+3 yields 31sec to raise the temp to 65F.

How do you find your magic number? Measure some water, say in the 300-450g range. Take its temperature, and zap it for some reasonable time, e.g. 30 seconds. Measure the temp. Repeat with the same weight of water, for a different length of time. Plot the two tests on graph paper (or use a spreadsheet or graphing calculator), and extend the line through the points to where it crosses the zero temperature change line. Where it intercepts the zero temp, the time line will have some small value. That's your start-up time. Now multiply the weight of the liquid by the temperature change and divide by the time less the start-up time. For example, 350 × 25 / (31 - 3) = 312.5 Notice that that is from my own earlier example. Do the math on your other test(s). The C values should closely agree.

Once you have your magic number, any weight of water or milk and any (upward) temperature adjustment will provide the zapping time for your microwave.

cheers,

gary

Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul's picture

Two questions about dealing with dough

October 11, 2010 - 4:48pm -- Paul Paul Paul ...
Forums: 

I have a double whammy here.

 

Alright so I've been making bread lately (along with everyone else in the forum), and I've been having a few problems, about scoring bread, and refrigerating bread. First, about the scoring, i use our biggest knife, and spray it with pam, but it still get a lackluster score in the bread and ends up deflating it. Any help?

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - temperature