April 4, 2018 - 3:36am
Making my own retarder
I want to make my own small dough retarder, and I'm struggling to track down what exactly I should be buying to act as the cooling element. I don't have a lot of money to throw at this so wanted something maybe sub $100 (and ideally sub $50!) to serve. I've seen reference to peltier elements but I'm not really sure if I wouldn't be better off buying a 12v car fridge (for long journeys) and adapting that?
I don't want to go down the route of acquiring a used full size or wine fridge particularly, I've been there, done that - the fridge I acquired was faulty and it stood outside for months before I got round to taking it to the tip. My wife wouldn't be happy to see another fridge appear...
Thanks!!
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on the 'The Perfect Loaf' blog....
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/category/tools/
I am considering doing that myself at the moment..... Kat
P.s. need to tidy up first though to make space....!!!
thanks - but all he's done is buy a freezer (identical to a fridge in my wife's disapproving eyes!) and plugged it into a thermostat. I want to build my own so that I can make it compact and unobtrusive.
Thanks though!! :-)
and I will watch this space! Kat
I've been wanting the same thing. I haven't done the necessary testing yet but here are my current musings.
Put one of those high heat capacity frozen gel packs in a small insulated box with a low-power fan attached so that it sucks air through the box. Put this small box inside a larger insulated box along with the dough you want to retard. When the fan is on, air will circulate around the gel pack, cooling it. When the fan is off, very little heat exchange will occur. Control the fan with a thermostat. Maybe needs a flap to restrict air flow when the fan is off.
I'm thinking of using a my oven as the larger insulated box. I'm fantasizing that the amount of heat to be absorbed is fairly small when my house is 78 and I want to proof at (say) 50 or 60 degrees. I want to get a logging thermometer so I can do some simple tests on gel packs.
If the heat capacity of the gel pack is too small to initially cool the large space, then maybe you also include a few gallons of water at the desired temperature. The water absorbs the initial heat and the thermostatically controlled fan box only has to do regulation.
Even better would be to think of a way to avoid the fan because it is adding heat. Maybe some arrangement of holes in the small box that can be opened and closed on command? When the holes are open convection might draw enough air through to cool things.
If the gel pack can provide regulation for 12 hours, I could easily swap it out with a fresh one from the freezer.
I bought a very small wine cooler, then added a heat pad with a temperature control to make it a retarder and a proofer. It sits out in the garage, so it does not get unwanted attention. I think you would be hard pressed to make something more compact .
Last night I put my dough into the oven with a small baking tray of those cheap blue ice packs you can buy for $1. I included a small recording thermometer on the same shelf as the dough. I got the temperature graph you see below. I put it in about 20:40 and pulled it out at 06:40. The temperature drops to 60 and stays below 62 overnight. My bread had more acetic acid flavor this time. I've still got some timing adjustments to make but I'm getting there.
Gary, nice results. Are you putting it in your regular oven, or a microwave? My guess is that the smaller the oven , and better insulated, the better. There are some that do something similar with pizza dough, though they store the dough and the ice an a cooler, and go for longer periods.
Conventional oven in the kitchen. The microwave might work also though I'm not sure my bowl will fit in ours.
I could bring in a cooler from the garage but the oven is just sitting there.
Here is a shot of my configuration.