Water Temperature: Part 1
Why Water Temperature is Key in Bread Baking
Bread baking resources for home bakers, including our Substack, often gloss over the process of determining water temperature. When baking bread at home, the small batch size makes precision of any kind more difficult, and when baking for yourself or loved ones, the final product doesn’t need to be so precise. Still, understanding how professional bread bakers calculate water temperature is an important part of learning the craft, so we’re going to spend this week and next taking a deep dive into the subject.
Why is water temperature so important?
Bread is simple; it’s made of just flour, water, salt, and yeast. But the limited ingredient list means that each element plays a big role in determining the quality of the final product. Each of these four ingredients can vary widely, and bakers are always trying to adjust their processes in response. You could say that the challenge of being a bread baker is to take constantly changing ingredients and produce something that appears and tastes the same every time.
But with bread, the ingredients are just the start. That’s because time and technique also play major roles in the bread making process. With technique, we’re mostly talking about the shaping of the final loaf. But with time, the conversation covers every step of the process.
Just like how time works for everything else, a baker thinks of time as a spectrum. Take, for example, the spectrum of proofing. On one end, there’s underproofed; in the middle, there’s perfectly proofed; and at the far end, there’s overproofed. If you bake a loaf that’s not fully proofed, it will crack in unexpected places and be smaller and denser than it should. If the loaf is overproofed, it will be flat and a bit gummy inside. The baker’s job is to bake the loaf when it’s at the right point in the process, in the perfectly proofed stage.
But there’s another spectrum at play, which is fermentation. A loaf that goes from raw ingredients to the oven in just a few hours may be technically perfectly proofed. But, it will be lacking in flavor. Fermentation equals flavor, and flavor is the most important part of any bread. At the far end of the fermentation spectrum, breads can be very funky and sour. Whether this is appealing or not is personal taste. Generally, with good bread making technique, a loaf will be perfectly proofed around the same time the fermentation process has developed a nice medium flavor. Thoughtful bakers can increase or decrease the amount of fermentation “funk” in a perfectly proofed loaf by careful recipe planning.
The primary and best way to control both spectrums, proofing and fermentation, is to control temperature. Home bakers are often instructed to place their shaped loaves in the fridge for overnight retardation or in a warm spot or a turned-off oven for proofing. Professional bakeries are equipped with coolers set to various temperatures, as low as 33 degrees and as high as 55 degrees, and proofers set to temperatures from 80 to 95 or so and humidity levels also around 80 to 90. These devices are helpful, but they’re not as precise as they would seem. A key reason for this is they’re usually overloaded with bread, and this critical mass changes the temperature conditions beyond what these coolers and proofers can realistically compensate for. Home bakers, you’re really not missing out.
Rather, the most effective way to control temperature is to control the temperature of the dough itself.
How does controlling water temperature allow a baker to control dough temperature?
Every ingredient in a loaf of bread is at some temperature when it’s added to the recipe. Each of these elements affects the temperature of the final dough. Similarly, each environment the dough will ferment in is at a specific temperature. Generally, the bulk fermentation is completed at room temperature, and the final proofing time is completed in a warmer, more humid environment. In the case of retardation, the final proofing time is completed for a longer period of time in a cooler environment. But, consider that proofers and retarders aren’t usually all that accurate. Rather, to time the fermentation of the dough properly, bakers need to know what temperature they want each specific dough to register at immediately after mixing.
For most recipes, the desired dough temperature (DDT) is between 68 and 73 degrees. Much cooler than 68, and the dough will take too long to ferment, resulting in a loaf that may be a bit smaller than desired, or else a loaf that’s overfermented by the time it’s ready to be baked. Overfermentation in this case really just means that the yeast have eaten to many of the sugars, preventing a proper Maillard reaction, and resulting in a loaf that’s too light in color after baking. Much above 73, and the dough will proof too quickly for the nuanced flavors of a proper fermentation to develop.
In order to control the final dough temperature, a baker must work backwards from the DDT. Each ingredient added to the dough will impact the dough’s final temperature, but adjusting the temperature of something dense and solid like flour can be difficult to do. Water temperature, however, can be adjusted quickly, easily, and accurately. If a tap has both hot and cold water supply, like most taps do, adjusting the water temperature is simple and intuitive. Most of us adjust water temperature multiple times a day without even really thinking about it.
Adjusting the water temperature allows a baker to compensate for any temperature discrepancies with the other ingredients in the bread recipe. And, it allows the baker to start each dough off on the path to being properly proofed and fermented at the same time. It’s a simple case of calculating averages and solving for X, and it has a tremendous impact on the quality of the final bread.
Next week we’ll go deeper into the math behind calculating water temperature. Understanding the simple equation is an important step for every bread baker, even if you don’t plan on being as picky about temperature as the professionals. This week’s recipe is for Challah, an intermediate level full-inclusion bread. It’s a beautiful, delicious loaf, flavored with honey. And yes, we talk about water temperature! Let’s get baking.