I am curious, as we venture into a week of hot weather, with at least two days that are predicted to be in the 105* range; what does everyone here do, during the summer months?
Do you just keep baking?
Do you put your starters in the fridge & do the discard/feed dance once a week to keep it going?
Do you refrigerate it & let it go dormant, then resuscitate it once the weather turns cool, again?
I look forward to hearing the variety of answers, of what works for everyone.
Edit: I know how to make the necessary adjustments to my process, when baking during different seasons. I just wanted to know what you do.
Well how hot is it actually in your house? If it's around 80-85 range, that's still a great temp to ferment at in my opinion (but you have to be a little more skilled to handle the dough cause it'll be more sticky and will flow more)
DDT accounts for ingredient temperatures and can help a baker adjust during weather changes.
We moved to Florida and a cardinal rule is to never add heat or humidity to the house. What's a baker to do?? We went full Florida and bought a used apartment-sized propane oven/stove at an estate sale and put it in the garage. We bought it from someone that did a lot of cooking and baking and had set up a whole dinette in their garage for it. They frequently had friends over for breakfast in the morning. What a great idea!
I know there are bakers here on TFL that have a toaster oven they use on the patio or in the garage for the bake. I believe one baker posted that he bought a commercial countertop baking oven (the kind you might see at a Subway to bake rolls), put it on a cart ,adapted it (electrically) and wheeled it outside when he wanted to bake. When you need to bake you get creative.
As for starter care, I always kept mine in the refrigerator and would feed once a week. My recipes were adapted for some form of preferment-poolish or biga. Just build a preferment before bed, set on the table (covered) in the warm sunporch and it was ready for the next morning mix and bake.
The main thing is to bake some delicious fun!
That’s a great cardinal rule. For me, the only exception is for bread. I love the idea of buying a stand alone countertop oven, and wheeling it outside. I grew up with such a love for GOOD bread (♥️Thank you, Mom♥️) that in the winter, I consider soup & bread, a complete meal; and in the summer, a big salad & bread suits me just fine...and if the day has been extraordinarily tough, just give me a loaf of good bread & a stick of butter. ?
We don’t have air conditioning, in our house, so my current mod of operation, is to just bake early & be done before it gets unbearable, in the kitchen. But, that can take my time & attention away from doing necessary yard work early enough to beat the heat outside. I like the idea of a separate oven, to give my schedule some flexibility.