Winter Sourdough Advice

If you are an avid baker like me, you may have noticed that in the winter making proper sourdough or natural rise breads can be challenging. If you are just learning to bake, you may even have been so frustrated that you have given up baking. Please don't.

The issue is temperature. One of the big keys a baker learns is how to manage temperature. If it is too warm, your breads will spend their energy too quickly and too cold they will take longer to develop. Now in the winter, particularly one like we are experiencing, we tend to keep our homes colder than is ideal for bread development. The ideal temperature range is 72 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit or 22 to 23 degrees Celsius. Some allow for as low as 70 (21) and some as high as 78 (25.5), but most books and bakers will fall into the 72 to 75 degree area. Our house is 67 to 68 degrees (19 to 20C) during the day and even as low as 62 to 63 (16 to 17C) over night. This is too cold for bread, but I am trying to save on my energy bills.

Because of these lower temperatures if we are not careful, we may find our naturally leavened doughs just don't come out like we hope. The instinctive feel for the rising times we use in the warmer months are gone meaning we need to allow for longer development times and keep a closer eye on our dough. The first thing to keep in mind is the method chosen. As many of you know, there are different styles of "sourdough" or levain starters. There are stiff and liquid levains (levain is the French word for leaven and is most often used in reference to what we in North America call sourdough or a natural starter made without commercial yeast). A stiff sourdough is more dense and dough like, while liquid starters are more batter like. A stiff levain will develop very slowly. A liquid starter, with more moisture, will grow more quickly and have a shorter lifespan. In the winter, one can use the liquid levains to help keep your times more manageable. The addition of something other than plain water in the starter, milk or honey for instance, can provide additional sugar for our natural air born yeast friends to consume. These additions can help kick-start the activity.

Now it must understood that a long drawn out development in your starters and final dough, creates character, enhanced flavor and better post-baking life of the finished bread. This is why connoisseurs of bread seek out sourdough or levain style breads.

In the winter, we must seek out the warmest place in the house to let the starters rise; such as near the furnace. You can also use space heaters and oven pilot lights as ways to provide additional warmth. Some even use thermal blankets to provide a nurturing environment for their little bundles of yeasty joy.

If this extra care and attention is not something you want to undertake, you still have options for baking. You can use commercial yeast to bring about a more steady controlled result. Using commercial yeast, you can utilize the sponge or poolish method. In this method, one uses commercial yeast to create a starter which develops some character and flavor over 6 to 10 hours. The final bread is made using this sponge, adding more yeast along with the flour, water and salt. Another method is Biga, an Italian term for pre-ferment. Here one seeds the stater with commercial yeast, allows for a rise and development, then makes the final dough with no additional yeast added. There is also Pâte Fermentée or old dough. It uses a piece of finished dough from the previous batch to seed the next. This method is more difficult for the home baker who bakes less frequently, as a piece of finished, unbaked dough hasn't the lifespan of a natural sourdough.

While the commercial yeast will give a more certain rise in cold weather, temperature levels still play a part. If your house is cooler like mine, you may find that the rising and proofing times will be slightly longer than what may be listed in the recipe. Each baker needs to learn how to bake in his or her home, finding those warmer environments to help keep our yeast alive and bringing us glorious, golden treats from the oven.

Homemade bread is delicious, nutritional and far less expensive than commercially made bread. It brings to mind the warmth of the hearth, the fragrance of yeasty goodness and a time of simpler pursuits.