How to make your sourdough rise faster (or slow it down if needed) - The Epsom Bakehouse (2024)

FAQs

How to make your sourdough rise faster (or slow it down if needed) - The Epsom Bakehouse? ›

Check how much starter you're using

Practically speaking, try using water that's warm to the touch instead of room temperature. Or if you have a good food thermometer (affiliate link), get the water to the 80°F to 85°F degree range. This will get your dough off to a great start and help it to rise faster.

Chilling a starter is the best way to slow down its need for feedings. So when I travel or can't bake for a while, I put my starter in the fridge. As a result, it's always sluggish to ferment strongly when I pull it out and resume regular feeding.

How many times per day should I feed my starter? For basic maintenance, (using the countertop method), you want to try to find a feeding ratio and temperature that will support a once-a-day feeding. If your starter is rising and falling too quickly, try a higher feeding ratio or try lowering your starter temperature.

Put simply, retarding dough is the process of slowing down the final rising in the bread-making process. This is easily done by proofing bread overnight in the refrigerator since the cold slows down the rise. It has its benefits, including adding flavor and allowing you to bake the bread at a later time.

A Bowl of Steaming Water is the Key to Quickly Proofing Bread. In the winter, when your house and kitchen are at a crisp temperature and you need a warm spot for your dough to rise, create a makeshift “proof box” by placing a bowl of steaming water inside your oven alongside your bowl of dough.

Dough temperature is the regulating factor when it comes to bulk fermentation speed. To speed up bulk fermentation, keep your dough warmer (though I would not exceed 85°F/29°C). Conversely, to slow bulk fermentation, keep your bread dough cooler (I would not cool lower than 39°F/4°C).

Most commonly, the issue here has to do with temperature (which is very important). If your sourdough starter is kept at a low temp, even 70°F (21°C), it will slow fermentation activity and appear to be sluggish, taking longer to rise and progress through the typical signs of fermentation. The solution: keep it warm.

When your starter is reliably rising to double or triple its size and falling in the jar anywhere between 4-8 hours after you feed it (dependent on your ambient conditions and the flour you feed with) it is ready to bake with.

"Slowrise" is one way of saying that the doughs we mix and the breads we bake owe much of their glossy, web-like texture to the mellow leavening action of the sourdough starter created from local, wild Concord grapes by Stu Witt, Co-founder and Head Baker of Nashoba Brook Bakery.

How long is too long for sourdough rise? ›

If you desire an extra-sour sourdough loaf, cover it and refrigerate immediately. The dough will rise slowly overnight or up to 24 hours. Allowing the dough to remain longer in the refrigerator isn't beneficial, as an extended time in the refrigerator will lead to off flavors and diminished dough strength.

If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.

Have you ever wondered whether you have to clean your sourdough starter jar? The simple answer is you don't need to clean your sourdough jar. It's just not necessary to clean your jar all that regularly, unless it's super crusty or you can't get your starter out or fresh flour and water in.

When the dough rises too much before it gets baked, it will collapse, rather than rise, in the oven's heat, and the crumb will be uneven and ragged. The time it takes for your dough to rise will vary based on the temperature of your kitchen and the temperature of your dough—and the alignment of the stars in the sky.

While sugar and other sweeteners provide "food" for yeast, too much sugar can damage yeast, drawing liquid from the yeast and hampering its growth. Too much sugar also slows down gluten development. Add extra yeast to the recipe or find a similar recipe with less sugar. Sweet yeast doughs will take longer to rise.

There are two ways that we can slow down fermentation – lower the temperature or lower the amount of yeast. When it comes to cold fermentation it is extremely simple because we just mix the dough and pop it in the fridge where it will cool down and slow down.

Most commonly, the issue here has to do with temperature (which is very important). If your sourdough starter is kept at a low temp, even 70°F (21°C), it will slow fermentation activity and appear to be sluggish, taking longer to rise and progress through the typical signs of fermentation. The solution: keep it warm.

If you'd like to turn your oven into a proof box, you'll need a whole pot of boiling water to moisten and warm the air in the larger space. If your oven has a bread proofing setting, resist the urge to use it; the temperature is likely to be too hot for the long, slow fermentation sourdough requires.

If you add yeast to a sourdough starter, you will be introducing this honed and reliable strain of yeast to the colony of wild yeast. You'll speed up the fermentation process, and here lies the issue. The yeast will feed on the sugars in the dough and produce carbon dioxide, causing the dough to rise faster.

When you add yeast to water and flour to create dough, it eats up the sugars in the flour and excretes carbon dioxide gas and ethanol — this process is called fermentation. The gluten in the dough traps the carbon dioxide gas, preventing it from escaping. The only place for it to go is up, and so the bread rises.