January 5, 2024 - 7:39am
Bulk ferment in the tropics
What are some tips for bulk fermenting overnight in the tropics?
I know I can put it in the fridge, but I’m not sure if I like that idea because I don’t want it going that slow. Plus my fridge is extra cold for raw milk freshness.
i had a recipe that for cinnamon rolls that has around 15% starter in the recipe. I thought that would be low enough to not over ferment but by morning (around 10 hours) it was 1.5x the original size.
Forgot to mention my starter is strong, triples in 6 hours at 85% hydration.
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Not having baked in the tropics, my thoughts can only be general. Anyway -
- A very cold refrigerator is a plus, in my mind. You can reduce the chance of over-fermenting more easily.
- You can cycle the fermenting dough into and out of the fridge several times, as needed to fit your schedule. The flavor only gets better with more cold aging (though it's more likely to develop sour notes). Remember that the dough will continue to ferment as it cools down, so put it into the fridge before it's fully done. I use an hour before as a good rule of thumb.
- You could add more salt in the hopes of slowing down fermentation a little.
- You could use a lower inoculation of starter. For example, if you would have used 20% starter, use 10% and see how that works out. It should add several hours to the fermentation time.
- Chill your ingredients in the fridge before you mix them. You won't get much fermentation until the mixed dough warms up, giving you perhaps a few more hours.
- Use a stiffer starter.
Thank you for the variety of suggestions! I will start using them.
In addition to Tom’s suggestions. Yes reducing the amount of levain used would help a lot. Go down to 10 or even 5% and see how that goes. Also, starting with cold ingredients can help, although adding cold butter doesn’t work well for enriched doughs. The other thing you could do is placing the dough in the fridge to start to get the temperature down, and then transfer it into a cooler with one of those ice packs in it, that should keep the temperature cool but not cold especially if you only use a small reusable ice pack that isn’t frozen.
Benny
Thank you for the reply. I didn’t know I could go that low for the levain. My mind was thinking if I go that low then my starter would struggle just to ferment because of so much flour… but I guess if people can do 1:10:10 for a starter then I guess that would work haha.
Like the others said - play with the starter amounts till you get what you want. Enjoy!