Winter is here. Make these 5 changes to your bread baking.

While cold weather makes baking cozy, our Dough, whether made from yeast or sourdough culture, Most struggle at this time of year. Cooler temperatures and dry conditions slow down dough activity, leading to smaller loaves, lower overall volume, and less springtime in the oven. But none of this is insurmountable. Let’s look at five easy ways to bake your best breads despite the cold weather outside. (And if you’re up against the opposite challenge, here are some tips on how to back the transition Winter to summer.)

Photography by Patrick Marinello; Caitlin Wayne’s Food Style

1) Take care of your starter

I don’t know about your house, but in my house, my kitchen averages about 20°F from a hot summer day to the depths of winter. While 80°F in July might work, 60°F in January is a problem: too cold for my starter to thrive. For me to keep Remove Growing at a steady rate, the best environment is a temperature between about 72°F and 78°F—not too hot, not too cold. How do I get this temperature constant?

There are a variety of options. You can use a tool like sour house or a Broad and Taylor-Proferwhich maintains a precise, constant temperature. If you don’t have any of these tools, a warm place in the house will work. (And while you’re taking care of your starter, make sure you take care of yours.) Preferences For the best bread.)

Photography by Rick Holbrook; Caitlin Wayne’s Food Style

2) Manage the temperature of the dough.

Now that your starter is nice and cozy, let’s talk about mixing your dough. As with your starter, you want your dough to be comfortably warm, and you can achieve this by heating your water or liquids before mixing. In the colder months you need to use hot water to achieve the same fermentation rate as you need to use room temperature water in the warmer months. If you start with cold or cold water, your dough will rise very slowly, slowly rising. Low fermentation activity directly affects bread volume, oven springiness, internal texture, and flavor. (For a complete deep dive, see my colleague Barb Alpern’s article Desired dough temperature.)

Here’s an example: With my dough and air temperature readings in the 60s today, it’s important that I use hot water — up to 100°F. Although this may seem excessive, remember that a dough that maintains a comfortable 75°F in the summer will lose heat quickly in the winter. So, when you mix your dough, use water in the hot range and check the temperature of your dough 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 the winter, starting at the higher end of this range will get things off to a good start, knowing that the dough is likely to cool as it rises. All is not lost if you heat your liquids but still end up with cold dough. We have some tips for this scenario.

Daniel Sykes

3) Guide bulk fermentation

So, we kept our starter active by keeping it in a warm environment, using hot water for our mix, and our dough temperature at 75°F and Measured between 80°F. Everything should be perfect from here, right? Absolutely not. If we leave our rest dough at a cool room temperature (62°F), it will cool down significantly in no time. A journey that begins with so much promise you’ll have to fix a flat on the side of the road, until we intervene.

Just like with our sourdough starter, we want to provide a comfortable environment for our dough Bulk fermentation. Find a warm environment or create one using the tools at your disposal. once again, Broad and Taylor Proofer is a great solution. I usually find a warm spot in my house — near the wood stove, or inside my microwave, which sits on top of the stove. My colleagues have their preferences. Jessica Battelana is pouring her dough into it. Clothes dryer. David Tamarkin loves it. Dough heating mat. (A heating pad will also work.) For the best, most consistent growth, find an environment that is between 75°F and 80°F.

Martin Philip

4) Do not let the dough dry out.

Another potential challenge for winter baking? Humidity (or lack thereof). As with the swing between hot summers and cold winters, lower ambient humidity in the colder months can affect your bread. Dry conditions draw moisture away from the rising dough, creating a skin on any exposed surface. After the skin forms, not only will the activity slow down, but the skin destroys the stretchability of the dough and will present challenges during shaping.

To avoid this, I like. Flour bowls With hard lids to cover me Rising Dough. If you have followed us. YouTube contentyou have seen them in action. And when I don’t have a container with a lid, I have a set of mixing bowls to protect Covers the bowl (Which is twice as well. Benetton covered). They are indispensable. I avoid using towels and other covers that are not moisture proof.

Photography and styling by Martin Philipp

5) Protect your breads.

Like bulk fermentation, our shape loaves also tend to dry out or go stale in these cold, dry winter conditions. They can develop a skin, making the loaves difficult to score before baking and resulting in a more irregular oven spring.

Continue the coddling habit by covering the proofing loaves with some kind of moisture barrier. The proofing chambers I mentioned, like Brode and Taylor, are a great tool. I use my microwave, as I mentioned. I put a pot of boiling water on and close the door. Small things like rolls can be proved on a. Pan with a lid Or even placed inside a large, food-safe plastic bag. Ultimately, there are many places to set. For the dough to rise And keep it on the way up.

So bakers, don’t let cold temperatures and dry conditions put the brakes on your great bakes. With a few simple tricks you can keep things growing and enjoy your best loaves all year long.

Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; Martin Phillipe’s Food Style.