How I Ferment Sourdough in a HOT Kitchen 🔥

[@jbirdyhome-4050]

You are one of the best bread and sourdough KZbinrs! You always emphasize knowing your own variables and not to just blindly follow someone else's recipe without taking into consideration your own individual conditions, flour qualities, ambient temperatures, and you always explain the WHY for every step and the adjustments you need to make. Invaluable advice. And encouragement. You always keep it real. I watch your videos over and over again.

[@CulinaryExploration]

That's appreciated, thank you, I'm pleased the video was useful :)

[@helenjohnson7583]

AMEN!

[@grahamdavidhobbs1304]

I live in Kuala Lumpur ...Malaysia and here is Just Crazy Hot and Humid all year round.........after alot of trial and Error I am now able to bake nice sourdough bread

[@grahamdavidhobbs1304]

Your Latest Video......now confirms what I have been doing for the past year.....yeah I am on the right path now

[@susantichandra6903]

That's one hot kitchen, but at least still under 40% humidity. Unfortunately here in tropical Singapore, indoor humidity hover above 70% always! And typically 30c nowadays. I also do cold bulk at the end of fermentation sometimes, and no ambient proof. I've come to embrace making sourdough in this hot weather, it's fast and furious! 😂

[@CulinaryExploration]

Fast and furious, love it!

[@QienCho5566]

Invest yourself a styrofoam box and a kitchen thermometer gun, then put some ice into the styrofoam box and monitor the drop of temperature, adjust the amount of ice until you get what you want, then just proof your dough in the container

[@susantichandra6903]

​@@QienCho5566that's too much work for me, as I can still create nice open crumb loaves at 30c. But if you prefer to bulk cooler, why not, you do you. Many people prefer that indeed.

[@QienCho5566]

@@susantichandra6903 longer bulk fermentation means stronger flavour sourdough,again, different kitchen work differently

[@grahamdavidhobbs1304]

Thank You Thank you Thank You..... finally you have come up with this new video

[@susand.m3894]

Phillip I am back in Trinidad which is in the Caribbean. You are speaking to me !!! 🇹🇹❤️

[@jbz9547]

Thank you for this video. So much info learnt. Living in the tropics, it is constantly above 30°C here. I don't have space in fridge, so I use ice packs and a Styrofoam box for the cold proof.

[@CulinaryExploration]

That's a perfect solution and works really well :)

[@cachi-7878]

Hi Phil, i used to live in a very hot apartment and my way of dealing with the high temperature was to ferment my dough in a cooler to which I added those freezer blocks. I could manage a good dough temperature by cracking the lid open just a bit. It worked quite nicely. I like the little taps you give on the cover for good luck…😊 Cheers! Stay cool!

[@wdjones4735]

These are all fantastic tips and tricks! Summer in Az is tricky. 111 outside today and 82 in the kitchen. I will start using the fridge more and modifying the recipe! Thank you so much👍🏻 Have a great weekend😊

[@lynnvasquez4425]

I love you right now because you’re creating this recipe to my advantage 😊

[@ronsha6790]

Thank you for this video, exactly what I needed to know!

[@ColleenScatena69]

I turned my warm proofing box into a cooler and thats helping cool my dough down my kitchen is 100 and my dough was so runny. So im gonna try this

[@CulinaryExploration]

Keep us posted on how you get on 👌

[@달덩이마망]

감사합니다😊

[@CulinaryExploration]

You're welcome :)

[@AnarchX_VR]

great video! thanks for this - very helpful for us living in warmer climates all year long

[@pavelow235]

Always informative. Considering it is 95-99% humidity level where I am right now. 🥵🥵

[@BenGoshawk]

Great video Phillip! My kitchen at around 25-28C all year round. Yesterday was hot for me and I made a sourdough pizza dough that ended up on the sticky side of things, I'm going to try reducing my hydration and see what happens. Thank you

[@grahamdavidhobbs1304]

My preferment is 12% to max 15%

[@The_Blueyonder]

Great advice Phil. Here in Thailand it's not just the heat but humidity. I've made some soup and as you said it's all about experimenting and learning from and noting mistakes. I'm going to try levain at 13% and reduce the water by 10%.

[@chopsddy3]

Yes.👍 Learning to tweak according to conditions is like the second stage in this journey. I’m getting a large kitchen hygrometer/thermometer and hanging my note book right under it. One problem I find myself encountering is scribbling the math to tweak a recipe on the nearest scrap and losing it thereby condemning myself to repeating the work next time. An eraser board might not be a bad idea. Something for a quick scribble that will be there to record in a proper journal if it worked. Thanks for your advice Phil. It’s getting hot here . Your timing is perfect.

[@CulinaryExploration]

Hey bud, why don't you see if you can find a mini magnetic dry wipe board that sticks on the fridge? It's roasting here now, so I know how you feel!

[@chopsddy3]

@@CulinaryExploration That sounds like a winner. 👍Thanks.

[@grahamdavidhobbs1304]

I am basically doing as your new Video explains........my Hydration can never go above 70% ......my sweet spot is 68%

[@derppizza145]

Needed this, I live in SEA region and it is 30-38c all year round with unreal level of humidity. I sometimes nails my sourdough bread(still imperfect & little flat compared to yours) but also sometimes it turned into flatbread . I shall try these techniques on my next baking session, hopefully it helps with the result!

[@CulinaryExploration]

Stick with it, you'll get the hang of it - let me know how you get on with these tips :)

[@barrychambers4047]

Thank you, Philip! Always a pleasure to watch. It's all about developing sourdough intuitiveness.

[@CulinaryExploration]

Cheers Barry, pleased you enjoyed the vid :)

[@simply_hande]

I have a very hot kitchen right now, too and due to this and me not accounting for it in all my steps like you showed, my shaped dough in the basket (in the fridge overnight) was overproofed by the time i was ready to bake the next morning. So i tried something i had read about - i toppled it out of the basket, very gently degassed and then quickly reshaped it. Put it back in the basket and fridge while the oven heated and baked... and it was surprisingly good. I have heard overproofed sourdough is not always salvageable but it is definitely worth a try if you made mistakes like me.

[@opheliahamlet3508]

Interesting. Always learning something new here

[@renatoa]

The hydration reduction is the main trick that saved your day actually... Only 15% inoculation reduction, from 20%, is not enough, the chemistry of fermentation processes tell us that inoculation halves every 3 C degrees, in order to have same bulk time. My take on this challenge is to start with cool water and preferment, from the fridge, resulting 19C degrees dough after initial mix, then reaching 24 degrees after 3 hours, thus a 22-23 C average, as I have in the winter process. Everything else remaining the same.

[@superfoodsmoothies]

That 30 mins in the freezer before the fridge would have helped it not over ferment a little. Lovely looking loaf though! Great tip about using the fridge between pre shape and shape! Thank you

[@JonathanKandell]

There are two other changes to inhibit fermentation you didn’t mention : 1) using a stiff levain and chef rather than batter. 2) adding sone of overall salt to the levain.

[@RP-we1rs]

This is unrelated but, since you are so experimental, I'm wondering if you've ever tried to start a sourdough starter from store bought yeast? According to Nathan Myhrvold, the yeast and LAB colony of a levain are always changing based on environment and feeding schedule. I'm wondering if one started a levain with a commercial yeast if after a few weeks or months it would become indistinguishable from one started "naturally" without the addition of yeast? It might ease the entry to bread making for those who find it hard to wait the two weeks to start a starter. Anyway, love your videos and how playful and experimental you keep things!

[@mattseibert8588]

Love your content.ans your calculator. I notice your humidity is mid thirties. What if your hot and humid. Should you make bigger adjustments? I'm running about 29-30C and 60-70% humidity. I get a sticky dough no matter what.

[@milosparico3889]

My problem now is to ferment in a cold kitchen, been needing to keep my dough fermenting on the counter for about 9 to 11 hours, they turn out great, but takes a good while.

[@CulinaryExploration]

Hey buddy, have you increased the amount of levain in your formula? A cheap cool box and a hot water bottle can make for a crude but effective proofing box :)

[@milosparico3889]

@@CulinaryExploration I have! I usually make the reboot recipe, which takes 96g, but I add 150 instead.

[@milosparico3889]

@@CulinaryExploration Will give the fermentation box a try! Tysm for the tip and thanks for posting as well

[@CulinaryExploration]

@@milosparico3889 Let me know how you get on with the box. I promise, it's well worth the effort

[@Breadmaykr390]

Baking sourdough in hot weather is definitely not what I want, but I said screw it. I ended up benefiting from it and I simply make sourdough same day. Not perfect but still delicious bread. Hopefully, the long-awaited and cheap proofing box I’ve invested will come in handy to keep the dough cool while im literally melting like an ice cream at 32C weather…

[@claudetteouellette8347]

Hello, i could use some help, do you have any recipes that only use spelt, and dark rye flours. I am in Canada and our wheat here is ALL hybrid so the health benefits are basically gone, i am new to sourdough making i have failed at all my starters. I am hopeful this new one works. 😊 I hope to hear from you.

[@tim0r0h]

Any chance you could do the opposite? (I appreciate the strategies are inverse). My kitchen struggles to get above 20c in winter. So more levan, more hydration, and more heat in the water?

[@AnarchX_VR]

issuing a challenge! hot sourdough with no fridge hehehehe

[@lauragreen86]

So I don't understand why quick fermentation is bad thing?

[@relaxroymusic4111]

🙏

[@frankfurter7260]

Your kitchen will go up as high as 93F!?! Turn on the A/C! Don’t wait until you pass out.

[@helenjohnson7583]

I’ll wait to see his answer for this! (Climate control varies around the world.)