How do you calculate the temperature of the pouring water when making bread dough? All you need to know about raising your bread and getting the best aromas.
In order for your dough to rise properly and develop all its aromas, it must be at the right temperature for kneading. If it is too cold, it will not rise properly and you will have to add yeast, which will alter the taste. If it is too hot, this may lead to excessive fermentation or it may ferment too quickly, which is just as bad. The bread will have no real taste and will become mouldy more quickly.
Professional bakers use very precise recipes. Tuesday´s baguette has to have the same taste as Friday´s. Apart from the quality and quantity of each ingredient, the kind and amount of kneading and the time devoted to each operation, they use an abstract figure which they call ""base temperature"" or ""reference basis"". This figure lets you calculate the temperature of the water to be added to the flour to get dough that has the ideal temperature. This notion is primordial because the work of the yeast, and in consequence the appearance and taste of the bread, varies considerably depending on the temperature. Professionals work to the nearest degree!
For any given recipe you can, for example, try to get dough at 23°C. You will need to calculate the temperature of the water in relation to that of the air and that of the flour. This is how to proceed:
Water = base - (air + flour)
An example for desired dough temperature of 23°C, with a base figure of 58°C:
If the room is at 18°C and the flour is stored in the same room, the pouring water should be at 22°C.
58 - (18+18) = 22°C.
Professionals refine their base figures and modify them if they notice a difference between the desired temperature and that which is actually obtained, because kneading raises the temperature of the dough somewhat. To modify the base, you add or cut the base figure by three times the difference in degrees.
For example, if the dough is 21° instead of 23°, the difference is 2°. So you will need to add 6° to the theoretical base to obtain the personal base: 58 + 6 = 64. The pouring water should have been at 28°C.
64 - (18+18) = 28°C
At home, you can draw inspiration from professional methods and refine the recipes by playing with the temperature of the dough. It´s not magic! Equip yourself with a decent thermometer and take note: the results will surprise you!
