The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Is there an optimal temperature for the final rise?

mikehartigan's picture
mikehartigan

Is there an optimal temperature for the final rise?

I've been putting the shaped loaf in the oven with about a cup of boiling water in a pan on the bottom shelf for the final rise with generally good results.  I generally turn the oven on for a few minutes to warm it up to what seems about right, whatever that means - I don't pay attention to the actual temperature (a bad habit, I know).  I made a loaf of a pretty generic bread this morning.  The oven was a bit warmer than usual, but I figured what the hell, it'll be fine.  This loaf rose to triple its original size in about an hour!  Not ideal, but I didn't have time to punch it down and start over, so I baked it.  It turned out fine, though it's deceptively light for its size.

Evidently, I hit a temperature that made the yeast particularly happy.  What is the sweet spot for the temperature when raising the shaped loaf?  (sorry, I don't have my "English to Baker's" dictionary handy, so pardon my layman's vocabulary)  At some point, I'll kill the yeast, but I don't know where that is.  I could experiment and document the results, but I thought maybe there was an accepted 'ideal' temperature for this.

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

Your goal isn't to make the yeast happy, it's to make good bread. Optimal temperatures for that are in the 75-80 degree range. The warmer the temperature, the more likely it is that yeast activity will generate off flavors.

mikehartigan's picture
mikehartigan

I also brew beer, where yeast is a very big issue, particularly the fermentation temperature.  Manufacturers recommend a temperature range for each strain and homebrewers will spend copious amounts of money on equipment to control it.  Many homebrewers exploit the changes that occur outside the recommended range in an effort to coax some interesting flavors out of the yeast.

I assumed that bread yeast would exhibit the same sort of behavior at some point, but, given the short fermentation time (typically, a few hours versus a week or two for beer), I thought maybe that wasn't too significant.  The fact that yeast doesn't seem to be a very hot topic in these forums seemed to be consistent with that assumption, though it's possible that I simply haven't stumbled into any of those discussions yet.

I generally ferment at room temperature or, when I plan ahead, in the fridge.  The second rise is also usually at room temperature, but I've had occasion to put the shaped loaf into a warm oven to speed up the process.  This time, it got away from me, though, happily, the result was not a disaster.  I wasn't sure if the yeast was more active at that temp - whatever it was - or if it was simply the gas expanding due to the higher temp. Commercial bakers usually raise their bread in a warm, humid environment, so I thought there would be value in it, or at least I figured it wouldn't hurt.

Way too many things to learn here!  But if it was simple, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

BobBoule's picture
BobBoule

but its not critical unless you exceed the extremes. The first lesson I learned is that the warmer the yeast the faster they will rise the dough. I learned that somewhere between 120 and 130 degrees F, the yeast die off quickly. Of course I learned that long slow fermentation is better for flavor than making the yeast work frantically with such high temperatures so I learned about the "Rule Of 240."

Using the Rule Of 240 is easy enough and it lands my dough in the temperature range that gives me rather good results.