French bread not rising: is 64 F too cold for a rise, or will it merely take longer...?
Hi all,
I did some searches trying to find any previous posts like this but couldn't find any. so forgive me if it has been asked somewhere recently!
I am waiting right now on my first attempt at French bread (from Reinhart's Artisan Breads etc) to rise. We do keep our house rather cool during the winter; it stays at 64 - 65 F. It's been a while since I made bread when it was this cold and I am wondering if my bread is going to fail because of the low room temp? Or will I simply have to wait for it to rise twice as long?The dough sat in the fridge overnight per the recipe, and I took it out and shaped it at 9:40. The recipe predicted that it should have been 1 1/2 times its size at 11:10, and I don't see it even close to that.
Thanks for any help you can give. I suppose barring any responses like "YOU HAVE FAILED" I'll just give it more time and hope that nothing goes wrong for doing that.
My thermostat is set at 64º, and my French bread never fails to rise eventually, as long as I don't forget to add the yeast. If I want to help it out, I put my bowl of dough over a plate over another bowl with warm water.
Heh, so by "eventually" you must mean that the rise is usually longer than estimated? Thanks for the warm water tip! I will have to try that with the second piece of dough later in the week (I split this batch into two).
My dough got puffier and spread out a bit (I tried shaping it into a boule) but I don't know if it rose quite enough. I just stuck the bread in the oven because I can't have the oven at 525 all day. I should have waited to preheat it. Oh well. I'm going to check on it before it's supposed to be done and see if it can be salvaged.
Hi LBKexile,
64 deg isn't too cold, but if you take into acount that a normal french dough leavened with approx 2.75% of Fresh Yeast should ferment for 1 1/2 hrs at 80 deg or 2 hrs at 75 deg. Keep in mind that these are dough temperatures, not room temperatures. While extreme ambient temperatures will have an affect on times here, ultimately it is the temp of the dough that is more important. There are formulas to determine water temps need to produce doughs at certain temperatures, but they are more relevant to large scale production. Check your dough temp as soon as it is mixed and do some experimenting to find the correct temp.
John
Thanks John, good to know.
Well, this is how big it got. :-/
that showed how much extra time to add to your rise depending on dough temperature and ambient temperature. There must be statistics around somewhere.
Hi, Crider.
Bill Wraith provided us with such a chart some time ago. It may be more than you bargained for. Click on this link: Rise Time Table
Hmmm ... Might ought to put this in the TFL "Tools" list, Floyd.
David
That bread looks good and chubby! Where did you say you live? :)
If you fermented your dough overnight in the fridge, which I hear is a good idea, by the time you're done shaping it it's going to be at around 50ºF, and adjustments with water temperature won't apply. Preheating your oven is very important, especially if you're using a stone, and if your oven has vents on top (and a range), you can place your forms on the range top while the oven heats up. That should place your forms at around 80ºF for an hour, time enough for them to double in size.
Thanks. I live in the Atlanta area.
I have a glass cooktop so that tip might not work, but I can apply the general spirit---put it in a sunny window to rise or something. Or use the warm water tip you gave earlier. (I only incidentally noticed the names were the same on your two posts; the font sizes here are killer and I have young, sufficiently bespectacled eyes!)
keep our house at 67 and I put my dough into the oven with the light on. It produces wonderful warmth for the dough to rise nicely.
Anna
with my wifes electric heating pads, put my bowl on them & cover them with a towl. I check the dough temp a couple of times during the rise & turn the heat pad down if temps are to high.
Charlie
Today I made an attempt at shaping batards with the same dough. I allowed about 2 1/2 hrs before putting them in the oven, and helped them along by proofing them in the laundry room where the washer and dryer were creating warmth. They didn't rise up so much as out, and I put them on a baking sheet rather than my stone, but despite the flatness (I suppose I needed to create more surface tension when pressing the seams together? or use molds?) this bread tastes GREAT. I spritzed them with water right before baking and the crust is super crunchy. Thanks Peter Reinhart and the experts here with your tips and reassurance!