My loafs refuse to rise. Tips for bulk ferment in a cold kitchen?
Posted Mar 20, 2022, 7:09 PM UTC
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Hi friends, please help with bulk ferment, the one step I really haven’t figured out yet.
Procedure for this 70% hydration loaf: 100g levain (risen to max, about 6hrs), 500g bread flour, 335g water, 9g salt. 30mins autolyse, 4x folds, spaced out 30mins. Bulk ferment in oven with light on about 4hrs more (see notes below). Preshape, bench rest, shape and cold ferment overnight. Baked 450F for 35mins on cast iron pan with cake pan “lid”, with tray of water below, for steam, then 20mins uncovered.
My kitchen is about 19C, which is why I bulk in the oven with the light on. Not sure if that’s too warm, one time, I left it for 6 ish hours and my dough pretty much liquefied. I tried taking an aliquot to watch the rise, but it really just puffs up a little, no real rise. How do you guys get good rise in a cold kitchen?
This being said, I’m really happy with taste and even with crumb, but there’s clearly room for improvement!
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Crumb and structure looks underfermented and maybe a little too hydrated. Try cutting your hydration back a few percents (maybe 67%) until you get the rise and crumb you're looking for. Also try a few hours room temp ferment after shaping and placing in your basket, before you refridgerate. You want the shaped dough to be jiggly in the basket. Another note, you're feeding your starter with rye but you have none in your recipe. That will likely lead to a lower rise activity since you're not giving it any of its normal food.
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Can we just clarify how old is the starter?
How long is it taking to double on 1/1/1?
Have a look at bake with jack on YouTube. His main recipe is based on 21c.
You could also look up desired dough temperature by the perfect loaf. Interesting article to learn about it.
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Thanks! Starter is 4-5 months old, usually fed rye flour, and it doubles in 5-6 hours.
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I have the exact same problem! My bread is never taller than 3 inches! I attributed it to me using whole wheat and multigrain flours. But, it could be my cold kitchen as well! I am interested in seeing the answers to your questions as well, OP.
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My method is pretty similar to yours... I wait until my starter doubles in 4 hrs, but that's not too dissimilar. I do a 30 min autolyse also. I do 3 or 4 folds, one every hour and then I continue bulk ferment for another 4 hours or so. My most recent loaf had a total bulk ferment was 7 or 8 hrs. I also keep it in my oven with the light on, as my house is very cold. I check the temp of the dough every hour or so just to make sure it stays bw 75-80 degrees. If it gets too warm I turn the light off for a bit. The first loaf I made didn't rise as much, and I realize now that I didn't let it go long enough and my kitchen was too cold. I even use lukewarm (90 degrees) water to make sure my dough isn't starting off cold. My dough is slightly higher hydration - more like 75% to start, and I added more water when I added salt & starter so I ended up closer to 80%. Most recent loaf was perfect. Good luck!!
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Love your suggestion of checking dough temperature, I think the Perfect Loaf says so,etching about that too?
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Given how spread out this is and the fact that the crumb is not overly dense, I think this is indicating over proofing. The larger bubbles show where gluten breakdown has occurred and let the smaller bubbles aggregate togeter. If your oven is like mine, having the light on will warm it up to a steady 80F (26.7C). If you have a newer oven with dual halogen lights it can easily hit 120F (49C) before it stabilizes, so knowing that is important.
Next, my dough typically bulks on the counter at 65F (18C) at this time of year. I’ll let it go 8-9 hours before dumping it out and pre-shaping. In the oven at 80F that time is going to drop to 2-3 hours tops. Personally I prefer the low and slow method as your window to end the bulk is 3-4 times as long as at higher temps.
For folds, I highly recommend coil folding rather than just stretching and flopping it on top. Normal stretch and folds allow the dough to unfold rather than stretch. Coil folds require the dough to stretch along the folds and is just more effective. When you do the last folds the dough should not want to stick to your hands, but prefer to stick to itself.
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Thanks for the suggestions, sounds like plain patience is my next step.
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Thanks for the post pascalerc,
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