I have recently started baking bread a lot, after toying with it on and off for years. I am a clinical microbiologist, and it is interesting to deal with microbiology-at-home :-). Please realize that yeasts are living organisms. The warmer it is, the faster they will grow. We incubate fungal cultures from human sources at 30 degrees Centigrade (yeasts are fungi, and bread yeasts are specific fungi cultivated for bread making), which is 86 degrees Fahrenheit. If your kitchen is sweltering it's probably in the 80's. Your yeast is going to grow pretty quickly. In a cool winter-time house, where you may only have the thermostat set at 68, your bread is going to rise a lot more slowly. It is very temperature dependent. Hope I've helped.
July 15, 2014 at 8:46pm
In reply to Thank you so much for this! I've long suspected that my loaves … by Laura (not verified)