Winter is here. Make these 5 changes to your bread baking.
Your bread baking evolves along with the seasons.
While cold weather makes baking a cozy affair, our doughs, whether made with yeast or sourdough culture, often struggle this time of year. Cooler temperatures and arid conditions slow dough activity, leading to denser loaves, poor overall volume, and lackluster oven spring. But none of this is insurmountable. Let’s look at five simple ways to bake your best loaves even when it’s cold outside. (And if you're dealing with the opposite challenge, here are some tips on baking the transition from winter to summer.)
1) Take care of your starter
I don't know about your house, but at mine, the average temperature swing in my kitchen from a warm summer day to the depths of winter is as much as 20°F. While 80°F can work in July, 60°F in January is a problem: It’s too cold for my starter to thrive. To keep my sourdough rising at a steady rate, the best environment is a temperature between about 72°F and 78°F — not too hot, not too cool. How do I achieve that temperature consistently?
There are a variety of options. You can use a tool like the Sourdough Home or a Brod and Taylor proofer, which maintain an exact, consistent temperature. If you don’t have one of these tools, a warm spot in the house will do, too. (And as long as you’re taking care of your starter, make sure to also coddle your preferments for the best bread possible.)
2) Manage dough temperature
Now that your starter is nice and cozy, let’s talk about mixing your dough. Like your starter, you want your dough to be comfortably warm, and you can achieve that by warming your water or liquids before mixing. In the colder months you need to use warmer water to achieve the same rate of fermentation that you might get using room temperature water in warmer months. If you start with cold or cool water, your dough will likely be very sluggish, fermenting slowly; low fermentation activity directly impacts loaf volume, oven spring, interior structure, and flavor. (For a full deep dive, see my colleague Barb Alpern’s article on Desired Dough Temperature.)
Here's an example: With my flour and air temperature measuring in the low 60s these days, it’s important that I use warm water — up to 100°F. While that might seem high, remember that a dough that maintains a comfortable 75°F in summer will quickly lose heat in winter. So, when you mix your dough, use water in the warmer range and check your dough temperature after mixing with one of my essential bread-making tools: a thermometer. A healthy dough temperature will be somewhere between 75°F and 80°F. In winter, starting on the high side of that range will get things off to a good start, knowing that the dough is likely to cool as it rises. If you warm your liquids but still end up with cold dough, all is not lost. We have some tips for that scenario.
3) Guide bulk fermentation
So, we kept our starter active by keeping it in a warm ambient environment, used warm water for our mix, and our dough temperature measured between 75°F and 80°F. Everything should be perfect from here on out, right? Not quite. If we leave our cozy dough at a cold room temperature (62°F), within a short period of time it will cool significantly. The journey that began with so much promise will have you fixing a flat on the side of the road, unless we intervene.
Just like with our sourdough starter, we want to provide a cozy environment for our dough as it undergoes bulk fermentation. Find a warm environment or make one using the tools at your disposal. Again, the Brod and Taylor proofer is a great solution. I usually just find a warm spot in my house — near the woodstove, or inside my microwave, which sits above the stove. My colleagues have their own preferences. Jessica Battilana puts her dough in the clothes dryer. David Tamarkin loves his dough warming mat. (A heating pad will also work.) Look for an environment that’s between 75°F and 80°F for the best, most consistent rise.
4) Don’t let the dough dry out
Another potential challenge for winter baking? Humidity (or lack thereof). As with the swing between hot summer and cold winter, low ambient humidity in cold months can take its toll on your bread. Dry conditions wick moisture away from rising doughs, creating a skin on any exposed surface. Once the skin forms, not only will activity slow, but the skin removes the dough’s ability to stretch and will introduce challenges during shaping.
To avoid this, I like dough containers with tight-fitting lids to cover my rising dough. If you’ve followed our YouTube content, you’ve seen them in action. And when I don’t have a lidded container, my go-to for protecting mixing bowls is a set of bowl covers (which also double as banneton covers). They are indispensable. I avoid the use of towels and other coverings that aren’t moisture-proof.
5) Protect your loaves
Just like bulk fermentation, our shaped loaves are also susceptible to drying out or slowing in these cooler, drier winter conditions. They can develop a skin, which makes shaped loaves difficult to score before baking and results in more irregular oven spring.
Keep the coddling habit going by covering proofing loaves with a moisture barrier of some sort. The proofing chambers that I’ve mentioned, such as the Brod and Taylor, are a great tool. I tend to use my microwave, as I’ve mentioned. I add a jar of boiling water and keep the door closed. Smaller things like rolls can be proofed on a pan with a lid or even placed inside a large, food-safe plastic bag. Ultimately, there are many places to set a dough to rise and keep it on the upward path.
So bakers, don’t let the cold temperatures and dry conditions put the brakes on your great bakes. With a few simple methods you can keep things rising and enjoy your best loaves, all year long.
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Martin Philip.
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