Managing the temperature of sourdough in a warm climate

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Rachel has asked: Any tricks for managing the temp of the sour dough, as QLD can get quite warm. I have a french bread making book and they recommend using honey - what does this do to the rye sour dough starter? Can't wait to make real bread.

         
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farinam's picture
farinam 2015 July 9

Hello Rachel,

By sourdough, I assume that you mean your culture/starter.  Once it is well established and stable, it will survive quite readily in the fridge.  I don't think I would recommend using the fridge during the development stage.

If you are talking about proving and development of dough, that also can use the fridge but fairly obviously the time taken will be much longer compared to working at room temperature.  Other-wise, if there is a spot in the house that stays cooler then you could utilise that as a place to exercise a bit more control over the rate that things happen.

The main thing is to learn the look and feel of the various stages of dough development and proving and adjust your schedule to suit or use the fridge to adjust the timing to suit your schedule.

As for the addition of honey, I would think that the main purpose would be to make things sweet.  I am assuming that this part of the question was not related to the temperature control part.

Good luck with your projects.

Farinam

Cindi Williams-... 2021 June 28
In addition to making the dough sweeter, honey also feeds the yeast. Some kind of sweetener is often used in breads with whole grains to help the yeast rise.

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