I run a little village bakery in Surrey, England.
We are at capacity with our bread production of loaves retarded overnight in our fridges, no more space available for extra fridges.
We do use an ambient overnight prove in tins with small inoculation which works well, until the summer when the temperature shots up to + 20c with all our fridges & poor ventilation. We still manage to produce this bread by reducing the sourdough content to barely 0.5% which is great but I want to make something a bit more doughy as this bread is a northern European style 50% wholemeal 50% rye and has limited appeal to our market.
We tried a 2% Sourdough content with 75% Very strong Canadian flour & 70% hydration, it was delicious but a bit flat.
I do wonder if any of you have experience in that field and could point me in the right direction of reading material or website?
Thank you
Laurent
Without a temp controller - all you can do is adjust for it. Play with it and go from there. It can be done - I do it - but I'm not a pro baker. Warning - things will change with temps - be careful. Enjoy!
Look at Ken Forkish's books, especially his latest one "Evolutions in Bread." He says his recipes are designed for his Oregon kitchen, which is 70°F / 21°C.
I confess to a small chuckle when I read your comment about temps "shooting up to" 20°C. My Texas winter kitchen is usually 22° and most of the time I'm lucky if it doesn't get above 24°C/75°F (with the assist of air conditioning.) But I've never found that to be a problem for my bread. Of course, I make one loaf at a time and can let the dough dictate the schedule.
@thamesdittonbakery, I am an artisan baker working full time and bake for a group of friends once a week. I am reaching my capacity at home and have been thinking of replacing the cold fermentation with room temp fermentation for my sourdough country bread lately. Would you mind sharing your protocols with me so that I can experiment in my home kitchen and give you feedback? Thanks!