My cold ferment dough is showing 36.5 F/2.5 C. - is that too cold? What to do?
I'm trying a refrigerated overnight ferment but I just measured the temperature of the dough this morning as it has sat in the refrigerator for about 15 hours now. It's showing the temperature of the dough at 36.5 degrees Farenheit or approximately 2.5 degrees celsius.
I had read that yeast and bacteria cease activity under 40 degrees so my question is whether or not my dough is too cold and the fermentation is not happening. Does that mean my attempt at cold fermentation was a waste of refrigerator space?
If so, any remedies that people can suggest? If I take it out of the refrigerator now and let it warm gradually to a room temperature and let it rise, will that be okay? and will that affect the taste of the bread?
Thanks for sharing your experience.
From Minneapolis, MN where it's only 5 degrees F/-15 degrees C this morning.
where it is a little warmer? The cold will not hurt the dough, just slow it down. It will be fine, you can take it out and let it warm up or put it into a warmer but cool room for longer fermenting time.
Just because there isn't visible yeast activity doesn't mean that there isn't really fermentation going on. There is also a lot of different aspects to bread fermentation.
Starches are being broken down into sugars for the yeasts and other things. Just try out the recipe as is and see how it comes out.
My fridge is very cold and its tiny. I can't control the termperature well so most of my stuff ferments at a very cold temperature, but it always seems to work out in the end.