You know the problem: it is the middle of the hot season and your house is warmer than usual. If you don’t have air conditioning, the last thing you want to do is turn on the oven and heat up the house even more. If you do have AC, you don’t want to make it work even harder.
Add climate change to the mix, and you can see how this problem is getting worse all the time.
Here are some summer sourdough baking tips I use to bake delicious sourdough bread outside.
The ideal temperature for sourdough fermentation is between 23°C and 27°C (73°F – 45°F). When it is warmer, the sourdough cultures work much faster, and if it is too warm, the flavour profile is affected.
Here are four tips for your summer baking:
- 1. Less starter. On hot summer days, I use less starter in my recipes. With fewer sourdough cultures, the fermentation process will take longer. This will improve the flavour and will make it easier to monitor the fermentation.
- 2. Use cold water. Water temperature is the main factor in controlling the internal dough temperature. While I mostly use warm water in the winter, I use cold water in the summer. A lower dough temperature gives the sourdough cultures more time before the room’s heat speeds things up.
- 3. Watch the progress of your bulk ferment closely. If you bake with sourdough regularly, you probably have an established routine. Some recipes even give you a timeline for stretch-and-pull and bulk fermentation. These times are just guidelines. When the temperatures are higher, the times can be shortened.
- It is more important to learn how your dough looks, feels and smells. You will notice that your dough is ready for the cold ferment stage much sooner than you are used to.
- 4. To avoid heating up our house, I bake bread on our BBQ outside — and it works surprisingly well. Watch the video to see how.
This weekend I baked one of my Chia Sourdough Loaves on the BBQ and discard Blueberry Scones in the toaster oven outside.
