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dough temperature for overnight bulk fermentation

Lmw4's picture
Lmw4

dough temperature for overnight bulk fermentation

Hi there, I am taking a pause on sourdough and want to get back to using commercial yeast instead.

I want to try Peter Reinhardt's Many Seed bread from Artisan Bread Every Day.  The recipe calls for 1.5 T yeast for 723 grams of flour and I want to be sure the dough comes out of my mixer at a dough temperature that can accommodate an overnight bulk given what seems to be to be a high amount of yeast.  It also has 1/3 cup each of sesame, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds, milk, honey, water and of course salt.  The dough goes right into the fridge from the mixer.  Next morning  it gets shaped, put into loaf pans and allowed to proof between 1.5 and 2 hours.

Any suggestions about what DDT I should be working towards coming out of the mixer?   Should I not go as high as 75-80 F? Would 70F be better?  My fridge hovers around 38-40F.    I am trying to avoid the yeast burning through all the food before morning and ending up with a flat loaf.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

gavinc's picture
gavinc

I make Debra Winks 100% whole wheat sandwich loaf every week. The 1st bulk fermentation is 12 hours in the refrigerator. The DDT is 23C (73F) so that the yeast gets a head start. My refrigerator is about the temp of yours. After 12 hours I give it 2 hours at room temp, then degas and stretch and fold a few times. It then gets a 2nd bulk rise for about 3 hours at room temp. Final proof for about 3 hours.

 

Lmw4's picture
Lmw4

Thanks much.  This gives me a guide post.

Lmw4's picture
Lmw4

Thanks much.  This gives me a guide post.

suave's picture
suave

He gives you the temperatures of the liquids, so it stands to reason that he expects that if you follow his directions on mixing it will come out at the correct DDT.

Benito's picture
Benito

In the book he suggests 95°F water and the same for the buttermilk/yoghurt/milk so why don’t you just use that temperature?

Lmw4's picture
Lmw4

I keep my flour in the fridge and I always include the friction factor of my mixer and am assuming that would differ for folks.

I might  be overthinking but I read from a poster (can’t remember what site) that they made this recipe and it resulted in a flat pancake sort of situation.  I wondered if his dough was really warm and over proofed.

 I make the bagels from this same book all the time and the recipe is my absolute favorite but not surprisingly,  I had to tweak the process till it fit my environment.  Just wondering if any one had advice about dough temp off the mixer straight into cold bulk to avoid the potential of over proofing so I can tweak the process/water and milk temp.

 

Benito's picture
Benito

More likely that baker’s fridge wasn’t cold enough and the dough continued to ferment faster than intended.  If you keep your fridge to < 4°C then yeast activity will really slow or possibly stop.  I keep my fridge at 3°C.  It is also important to measure the fridge temp on the shelf location your dough will sit by placing a glass of water there for several hours and measuring the temperature.  There is huge variation in the temperature depending on which shelf and front to back.

Benny

suave's picture
suave

Reinhart used a large number of volunteer test bakers for this book, and every recipe was verified by people of different skills and environment.   Poor outcome is most likely a user error.

Lmw4's picture
Lmw4

Maybe I should have worded my question differently.  I am only looking expand my bread baking knowledge.

Just looking for thoughts on DDT going into cold bulk.  There must be some sort of guideline on that issue.  If it goes into bulk outside of the fridge, for wheat I aim for 75 F - 78 F.  Was wondering what going into cold would make sense.

I trust Mr. Reinhardt and bake a lot of bread from his books and enjoy them very much.

Thanks for the input though.  Appreciate it.

 

mariana's picture
mariana

The guideline is to follow the recipe. Some have very low DDT prior to overnight refrigeration, using ice water to mix the dough, others  - very high DDT, using hot water to mix the dough.

A lot depends on the size of the batch as well. If your batch of dough is smaller or larger than in the original recipe, you would have to adjust your DDT accordingly or else your dough would either overferment or not be ready in time.

The only rule is to follow the recipe as written.