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Making sourdough in hot and humid environments…

Loaf made using my master recipe and just 20g starter

One of the key things to know about making sourdough successfully, and something that I write about in everything I produce (and talk about endlessly) is how the weather, especially heat and cold, affects making sourdough.

As soon as I understood this connection, it exponentially improved my sourdough making and this is what I try and pass on to all of my foodbod Sourdough bakers: the weather is a key ingredient in the success of making sourdough bread, and as soon as you understand that, your bread making will fly!

Making sourdough can seem challenging in any environment, but when you throw in heat and humidity it can seem even more so, and as a consequence there will be tweaks and allowances that you need to make, so this is my guide to help you.

My first and strongest advice is to get a thermometer for your kitchen that reads temperature and humidity (see below). This will be your best friend in understanding how to make sourdough successfully and consistently in a hot and humid environment. Alongside that, I highly recommend starting a journal, or keeping a notebook, to log the activity of your starter and your dough making to assist you with making sourdough throughout the year where you live. This can become an invaluable reference book for you.

The key factors are that heat will make your starter and your doughs work faster, it can therefore make your starter become thin and hungry and therefore weak, and the heat can risk over proving doughs. Humidity will only increase that but will also add moisture into your starter or your dough, and can also affect your baked loaf. So here are my tips…

🌟 Starter 🌟

Every time you feed your starter (or make dough) always note the times, temperature, and humidity percentage. Once your starter has responded and grown in size to where you want it to be, make a note of how long it took to get to that point and note again the temperature and humidity in case they have changed. Repeat this across an entire year and you will be able to produce a pattern of behaviour that you can refer back to whenever you want to make sourdough in the future. To achieve this, I highly recommend feeding your starter when you will be able to watch it.

In high temperatures starter could very easily only need 2-3 hours after feeding before it is ready to use.

Beware not to leave your starter out for too long in the heat otherwise it will work through its feed quickly, it will rise and fall then become thin and therefore weak and will need feeding again before you can use it.

If needed, feed it more flour than water to keep it strong, especially if it starts to become thin with tiny tiny bubbles. You can do this as often as you need to; the key is to give your starter what it needs to stay strong and healthy. In this instance, do not worry about feeding it equal weights of flour and water, watch your starter and get to know its behaviour and what it needs. This is far more important than equals weights of flour and water in hot and/or humid environments.

When you feed it, allow your starter to be a good thick mixture, giving it sustenance and body.

And forget ratios or percentages. I never use them, neither are necessary.

Water: Also consider using cold water in your starter and your dough to help protect them and slow down their activity in the heat.

🌟 Dough 🌟

In doughs, to successfully prove overnight on the counter:

Use less starter to offset the heat, literally go right down, even as far as 5-10g if you need to. This will slow down the proving process and prevent over proving. Nothing else in the recipe needs to be changed unless you need to amend the water for the following reasons. To read about making sourdough in the heat, click here. For details about making sourdough in hot AND/OR humid places, keep reading.

In high humidity: dough will absorb extra moisture so use less water to offset the humidity, again, go down in 25g drops. And take notes.

If your dough starts off quite stiff as you’re working with it, don’t worry, it will loosen up.

It’s okay to use 275-300g water if that’s what works. In a humid environment the dough will take on moisture from the air as it proves.

If you also live somewhere where you do not have access to very strong flour: use less water to offset weak flour if needed, reduce it by 25g if you cannot get hold of good flour this will help your dough to be firmer.

If in doubt: if you are worried about leaving the dough out overnight, put the dough in its bowl into the fridge when you go to bed and take it out again the next morning to finish proving on the counter whilst you can watch it.

To prove during the day, use the standard amount of starter but still less water if it is humid. And watch the dough like a hawk. Move it into the banneton and into the fridge as soon as it doubles in size.

If your dough becomes very bubbly in the surface and soft and sticky and hard to manage, it is too wet either from added moisture, or over proving, or both. In this instance, if it still has some body, try moving the dough into a loaf tin to give it support, prove again and bake. Or follow my process to make focaccia. If it’s really liquified, stir in milk and make pancakes, or yoghurt and make flatbreads.

Never ever waste dough, it can always be used. Plus, over proved dough has a lot of great flavour!

🌟 Baked loaves 🌟

Once baked, leave it an hour before slicing into it, but don’t leave it for several hours on the counter otherwise the humid can make the crust soften and the inside become damp.

A top tip: if you are trying a sourdough recipe that does not refer to room temperature or anything along those lines, you are missing information; I highly recommend you ask the recipe writer for more details, especially if you have had any issues with the outcome.

A rough guide: This is the result of some information I’ve been gathering, all of the doughs have been made using my standard master recipe with strong white bread flour. These amounts allow the dough to prove fully in 9 hours in your counter. The temperatures cover the time that I start making the doughs and overnight. Please note that these are the temperatures IN YOUR KITCHEN, across the making and proving time, not the outside temps.

Between 18-20C:use the standard 50g starter.

Between 21-24C: use 15- 20g starter.

Between 23-25C: use 10g starter.

Over 25C overnight, use 5g starter. For temps well over 25C consider proving during the day.

These smaller amounts of starter can seem tiny, and you may not believe it will work, but I promise it does.

I hope this all helps.

🌟 This is the thermometer I use: Therm Pro.

🌟 These are notes sent directly from the lovely, Nargess, a foodbod sourdough baker from the UK who I currently residing in Thailand and therefore having to allow for the change of climate in her baking:

“The thermometer and taking notes is so vital.

I found that the weather temp.(heat) dictates the amount of time needed for dough to proof and starter to rise and humidity dictates the amount of water that needs to be added to your dough and starter. I know this sounds like common sense but not having experience with baking in such conditions I didn’t realise this until now. I say this because sometimes its very HOT but not humid.

For MY kitchen and weather I have found that when humidity is between 80-96% my dough needs approx. 2-21/2 hours to prove and then I fold and into banetton and when humidity is between 60-79% then approx. 3-4 hours to prove and as you said, I watch it like a hawk and check on it regularly and as you already know these times can still be variable.

Another thing I do for the starter feeding (the water part) is that I start with less, about 8grams (approx. 1 tablespoon) and if it looks stiff and feels dry after stirring then I add a little bit more, about another 8grams. I check it again after one hour to see how its doing to make sure it has enough water.”

If you’ve had similar experiences please do add them in the comments below…

Over and under proved doughs…

If you would like to learn more about proving dough, I recently made a video showing well, under and over proved that you can now watch as part of the Pastry Arts Baking Summit 2022 – discover how the doughs look, behave, handle and bake, and why. Click here to watch.

My books

I am so proud to have published 3 books, they are my babies, and share every bit of my sourdough love within the pages. I am often asked ‘What is the difference between your books?’ So if you are wondering that, I thought I’d endeavour to provide the answers…

All of my books are good for anyone starting out with sourdough, but they are also equally good for anyone who already makes sourdough as both have lots of different recipes and ideas.

If you are new to sourdough, or would like to know the simplest way to make sourdough, or to know all the answers to all the questions you’ve ever had, and more, THIS book is for you:

This was my second book and is the perfect handbook for understanding everything you need to know about making sourdough, simply and successfully.

I explain how to make a starter, and I go into a lot of detail about managing and using your starters. I spent a lot of time testing ideas, timescales and experimenting with my starters, pushing the boundaries of how to use them to be able to share different timetables and give you full confidence in using your starter.

This book includes my master recipe and full step by step detail with lots of information and tips to help bakers, with answers to frequently asked questions, lots of timetables and timing options, and as much of information from my sourdough brain as I could download onto the page.

You will also find a chapter all about dough. Making, proving, reading, understanding and using your dough. It focuses on the freedom and confidence to know that the dough does not need to control you but that you are fully in control of the DOUGH, and how it to make that happen.

The book then goes on to talk about timing, and temperature, how they affect your sourdough making, how you can manage them, and even more simple tips for your success.

This book answers every question you’ve ever had about sourdough, plus many you didn’t even think you had. It is a one stop shop for sourdough making.

The recipes that follow are full of flavours, and shapes, and different timings. The recipes, all different from the first book, include full size loaves, baby loaves, enriched doughs, spices, fillings, same day recipes, focaccia, pizza, rolls, ciabatta, and more.

If you fancy making lots of different breads with your starter and having lots of fun with sourdough, you’ll love this one:

My third and latest book is my absolute most creative collection of recipes yet, I had great fun making and testing all of these, and really hope that you will like them as much as I do. For me, this is the perfect partner to my book above, it’s a great next step to expanding your sourdough baking.

There are 60 different recipes in the book, sweet and savoury, including free form loaves, sandwich loaves, enriched doughs, rolls, baguettes, Turkish pide, pizza rolls, apple roses, filled loaves, seeded breads, baby loaves, cheesy rolls, crackers, flatbreads, pizzas, focaccia….it goes on and on, there’s so much choice! It includes a whole new wealth of flavours, shapes and sourdough possibilities within the pages. All of the recipes have been designed using my trademark methods and simplicity. I have also worked hard to take out any challenging shaping and I have maximised the use of the pots and pans and oven trays that we all already own to ensure that we get the most out of them possible – you’ll find some great new ways to use your bread pans!

This book is about fun and diversity and getting as much as possible out of your starter.

If you fancy trying some different flours, including whole grains and ancient grain flours, you’ll like this one:

A book cover with a picture of bread on it.

This was my first book and it also introduces sourdough and includes full details about what a starter is, and how to make one; it then goes into detail about wholegrain/wholemeal flours and ancient grains and heritage flours (spelt, emmer, einkorn, khorasan, rye), what they are, how they differ and how they behave in starters.

It then introduces my master recipe with lots of detail and answers all the questions you may have as you make sourdough. The book also discusses how the different flours will behave in doughs.

The recipes that follow include all of these flours too, in varying quantities, with tips about how the doughs will feel and behave, adding extras into doughs and handling doughs differently to make other things. They include full sized loaves, baby loaves, rolls, sandwich loaves, coil filled rolls, focaccia, same day recipes and crackers.

All of my books compliment one another, and also work perfectly as stand alone books. Bakers do not need to have them all – unless they want to of course…I hope this helps, if you have any further questions, please do contact me xx

What other people say:

“Each of your books simply whets my appetite for more –

Book 1 gave me the courage to start my sourdough journey,

Book 2 encouraged me to become more creative with my sourdough bakes and

Book 3 is a whole new world of devine recipes that I honestly cannot wait to try out!!

All three books include your principles for making sourdough easy & enjoyable plus tips & good housekeeping advice yet each book is very different in its own right and is worth its weight in gold!!

I applaud you Elaine, without your books I doubt I would have ventured into the wonderful world of sourdough & Foodbod Sourdough. Thank you!!”

Tracey Toner, The Lush Larder

“In my opinion, each book offers its own uniqueness. Yes, some basics are repeated which allows one to create successful sourdough makes without having to own all three books. However, if you want a complete understanding of all the ins and outs of just how flexible and simple sourdough baking can be, the three books are worth their weight in gold. Simply put, all future gifting to family and friends whom I have introduced to the world of sourdough will now receive all three. If your budget only allows for one book, I suggest The Whisperer.

Think of the books as classes – The Whisperer an Introduction or basic level course and the other two releases as building blocks.

I hope this helps those who are unsure of what to purchase.”

Mary Spurrier, home baker

Is your pan big enough?

Todays top tip: if your pan is too small for your dough, your loaves will not bake properly.

Once again, in this instance, size matters; the size of your pan makes a big difference to your baked loaf.
🌟
Let me explain why I’m posting this… Recently I’ve been contacted by a few bakers who have found that their loaves aren’t baking fully all the way through, or are soft and under baked round the sides, and sometimes also the base, of their loaves. In each case, the reason this has happened is because the pan has been too small for baking the loaves. What this means is that all the wonderful work you’ve done to create your starter and then to build a lovely strong dough, is that the dough can’t spread its wonderful wings and grow sufficiently so it get stunted and stopped in its tracks and therefore underbaked. The limited space means that the steam and heat can’t circle the dough which it needs to bake it evenly; plus the dough being inhibited by being in a small space means it gets compacted so the inside doesn’t get fully baked.
🌟
Just as the right size banneton is important, a good size pan is too.
🌟
If you feel your loaves are not baking fully, the top 5 reasons will be…

They need to be baked for longer: try adding an extra 5-10 mins to the bake.
The dough was too wet: next time use 25g less water in your dough.
The dough was over proved: watch the time and temp you’re proving at.
The dough was under proved: give the dough more time to prove.
The pan is too small: ensure your loaf isn’t hitting the sides of the pan or the underneath of the lid.

For info: I use my standard master recipe dough with a 21-22cm diameter banneton and a 26cm diameter enamel pan. You’ll find full details on my equipment page.

There’s more help about all of these issues throughout my site and in my books.
🌟
To answer the other question of ‘is my pan too big?’, the answer is no, a pan can never be too big. If you are asking that because your dough spreads in the pan, the issue is the dough, not the pan. Your dough should happily hold its shape when you turn it out into the pan, and not rely on the pan to hold it. I have a post fully explaining why your dough may spread here.
🌟
Have fun!

A simple tool for judging if your dough is fully proved…

f you’ve ever asked me ‘how do I know when my dough is fully proved?’ this is for you….

If you know anything about me and my sourdough world, you will know that keeping things simple is my main driving force; sourdough can be made as simply as you choose to make it, and I work very hard to make it as simple as possible for me, and for anyone who uses my ways…

Once question I am asked a lot is ‘how do I know when my dough is fully proved?’.

The simple answer is: look for it to double in size. But I know that that’s not always as easy as it sounds.

So, the even SIMPLER answer is this: do what I do, and use a perfect sized bowl to help you judge it!

Yes. Use whatever tools you can to make life easy, and a perfectly sized bowl takes the guess work out of judging the growth of your dough completely. And that’s what these bowls do.

Let me explain….this didn’t happen by design, I just ordered some new bowls one day and along came this one. The more I used it, the more I realised how useful it was. It is PERFECT for making my master recipe, in more ways than one. When I make my standard full size dough, I look for my dough to almost fill the bowl (obviously I also want it to be sufficiently structured and well proved too); when I make my baby master doughs, I want the dough to be level with the second groove engraved in the side of the bowl. If the dough under or over proves the bowl also helps to judge that.

As I say, this has been a happy accident, I didn’t choose the bowls for this reason, but it has all fallen into place. I now own 12 of these bowls, they stack perfectly, and I use them all over and over again. You don’t need as many as me, I have so many for my courses, but I highly recommend you give them a go. Again, this is the kind of helpful, simple Foodbod advice, you will find in my book, The Sourdough Whisperer.

You can now find these exact bowls in the US here: Shana’s Sourdough

Simplicity, all the way.

‘Why does my dough spread?’

One of the questions I am asked the most is:

why does my dough spread?

Or, why are my loaves so flat?

Which often goes hand in hand with ‘I really struggle to score my dough’.

If that’s you, read on…

All of these issues can be easily fixed, and will be because your dough is very soft, can’t hold its shape, and therefore spreads, it will be impossible to score successfully, or even you can score it, the scores close up. Typically, this is because your dough is not firm enough.

The key reasons for this are, either:

⁃ your flour was not strong enough for the dough to hold its shape,

⁃ there was too much water in your dough for the flour you’re using,

⁃ you are not building up enough structure in your dough during the pulls and folds actions (they do make a difference),

⁃ you are not pulling your dough together tightly enough when placing it into your banneton; this video will help,

⁃ or the dough is over proving and therefore losing any structure,

Also note that if your banneton is too big for your dough your loaf will be wide and flat.

There’s answers, help and solutions for you throughout my book, posts and on my faq page.

But the key thing to know is, it’s always an easy fix… AND, as always, all that matters is how your loaves taste!

My rule of thumb is this: if your dough is soft and sticky BEFORE the overnight prove, you probably need less water in your dough; if it’s soft and sticky AFTER the overnight prove, it’s probably over proved and you need less starter in the dough from the beginning, or to move your dough to cooler spot.

On this website you will find no ads, no pop-ups, and no sponsorships. You will find only freely given recipes, information, guidance and help. If you like my site and would like to ‘buy me a cup of tea’ that would be lovely. Thank you xx

Baby master recipe pumpkin loaves…

Have you tried making a pumpkin shaped loaf? It’s good fun!

You can make them with plain doughs or flavoured doughs, or with mixed flours, using my baby master recipe quantities, banneton size and baking times, or using a full size dough.

For this loaf I used my baby master recipe sized dough.

I’ve added step by step photos below of how to create the shape.

NOTE

You will need butchers twine string, and a cinnamon stick, or a stalk from a pepper/capsicum/squash/pumpkin.

PROCESS

To make this baby size dough:

30g starter

210g water

300g flour

Salt to taste

Or use my standard master recipe dough.

Whichever size dough you make, follow my master recipe process up to step 6.

By this step your dough should be in your banneton and have had several hours in the fridge to prove and firm up. When you are ready to bake, cut 4 strings long enough to tie across the dough.

Place the 4 strings evenly across the dough and banneton

Remove the cover from your banneton. Lay the strings evenly over the top of the banneton as above.

Place your parchment paper or pan liner over the top of the banneton and strings, and your pan over the top of both. Use both hands to turn it all over, keeping the strings in place.

Turn it all out into your lined pan

Remove the banneton and prepared to tie the strings.

Remove the banneton and tie the strings across the top

Making sure you are using corresponding ends of the strings, tie each one across the dough and tie firmly on the top.

Don’t pull the strings tightly across the dough, it will grow as it bakes to form the shape.

All tied up

Tie in bows that you will be able to undo later.

You can now score or not, totally up to you, then put the lid on your pan and bake as usual.

If you are making my baby version, bake at 220C fan 40-45 mins from cold, with the strings in place and the lid on.

Ready to bake
Fresh from the oven

Once baked, remove the loaf carefully from the pan, place on a rack and undo the strings. Place the loaf back into your pan and bake, covered or uncovered, for a further 5-10 minutes to ensure it is baked through.

On a rack to remove the strings

*from being compressed I have found that the loaves can be slightly undercooked if baked for the standard amount of time only, the extra time minus the strings ensures it’s not damp inside the “˜wedges”.

Strings removed

Add a “talk” for a fun presentation.

Stalk applied!

And there it is! You can use more strings, or less, you can do intricate scoring, you can use a plain dough made with any flour, or a flavoured dough. The possibilities are endless!

The basic recipe can be enhanced with added ingredients of your choice, dried fruits, seeds, chopped nuts, spices, alternative liquids. You can create whatever dough you like, then use the steps above to create the pumpkin shape.

So, have you made a pumpkin loaf yet?

To make the loaf that I’ve featured here, you can find the details of my ‘Pumpkin Spiced and Shaped Loaf” recipe on page 99 in my current book, “Easy Everyday Sourdough Bread Baking“.

For your perfect flour options, visit Matthews Cotswold Flour and discover the flours that I use.

100% spelt sourdough loaf…

Spelt flour is a beautiful flour to use and produces an amazingly tasty loaf. It is not, however, a straightforward flour to use and benefits from being baked in a loaf tin to give it support. To make this loaf, I followed my master recipe process to make the dough and the process for making sandwich loaves as in my book.

This is the flour I use for this recipe here in the UK.

Ingredients

50g starter (I used my spelt starter, see below)

350g water

500g wholemeal spelt flour

1 tsp salt

Method

To make the dough, follow my usual master recipe process as written on my site or in my book, mixing everything up together mid/late afternoon. It may seem dry initially but it does not need extra water, go in with your hands and squeeze the mixture together, so that there is no dry flour left.

Then cover the bowl with your shower cap/cover, and leave it on the counter for 2 hours, this rest time will make it easier to stretch the dough later.

After 2 hours, do a set of stretches and folds on the dough. Wholemeal flour is oily and does not stick to the bowl which also means that when you try to stretch it, the whole dough will lift out of the bowl so I hold the dough in place with one hand, lift a portion with the other hand, pull it up and tuck it over the dough. Do this a few times round the bowl.

This will be a stiff, spongy mix.

Cover the bowl again, let it sit for 1 hour then repeat the stretches. It will only need a few actions.

Do this twice more then cover the dough again and leave it on the counter overnight.

In the morning the dough will have grown to double the size with a smoothish surface.

View of the top of the bowl
View from the side

This now needs to be pulled together to go into the tin. This video shows how I do it: https://youtu.be/DHp-TXjLGp0

The dough will be spongy and textured and will not take many pulls to bring it together.

Ready for the next prove

Once it is in the tin as per the video, cover it again, and leave it on the counter.

Let the dough prove again. Once it is level with the edge of the tin, bake.

After several hours on the counter
Ready to bake

This can be done from a cold start; place the tin with the dough in, uncovered, into the cold oven. Turn the oven up to 180C fan/200C non fan and bake for 45 mins from the time you placed it into the oven.

The loaf will not grow much more as it bakes, the growth is all in the proving, the baking merely consolidates that.

Once baked, remove from the pan, tap the base, and if it sounds hollow, remove the paper and cool on a rack for a good hour at least. If you feel it needs baking for longer, put it back in the oven for 5-10 more minutes.

Baked and fresh from the oven

These loaves tend to feel slightly moist which is normal.

To make this loaf I used a wholemeal/wholewheat starter too to make this a 100% spelt loaf…

To make your own, follow my guide for making a starter on my site or in my book, exactly as it’s written, just using wholemeal/wholewheat spelt flour. Please note that you can use any type of starter made with any flour, if you want to keep the loaf fully spelt, below are some notes about making a wholemeal/wholewheat spelt flour starter.

Day 1: this will be a thick first mix

Day 2: this will still be a thick mix, but not as much as day 1. There may be a slight liquid forming on surface, this is normal

Day 3: you may see bubbles forming on surface and throughout the mixture, it will have an elastic, thick, bouncy consistency

When you feed it it will be thick, maybe already showing bubbles after mixing and stirring

Over next 24 hours, you should see bubbles appearing, the texture becoming almost spongy, and the volume starting to grow, and a strong wheaty smell developing

Days 4 & 5: the mix will be thick, elastic and textured

Day 6: you will notice a strong smell when the starter is stirred, this is normal, and typical of wholegrain flours. It should also now be textured, bubbly, and thick before feeding

And lovely and thicker after feeding. Bubbles may be appearing as soon as fed and stirred

Day 7: it should be responding to its feed and growing and becoming textured with a bubbly surface.

Note that with wholegrain flours, any show of dark liquid on the surface or around the edges is normal.

I hope you enjoy creating your own wholemeal/wholewheat spelt starter and loaf, and enjoy the fabulous flavour! For more ideas about using spelt flour, and lots more wholegrain and ancient grain flours, check out my book “˜Whole Grain Sourdough at Home”.

A book cover with a picture of bread on it.

Sticky doughs…

Let’s talk about sticky dough…my top tips:

🌟 if your dough is soft and sticky BEFORE the overnight prove, you probably need less water in your standard dough, or it’s due to the flour/s you’re using (more below);

🌟 if your dough is soft and sticky and impossible to handle AFTER the overnight prove, it’s probably over proved and you need less starter in the dough from the start next time….🌟

Some flours will produce stickier doughs as a standard, for example, an inclusion of a portion of rye flour, malted flour or einkorn flour in your dough will make it stickier, and that’s normal, just go with it and use a bowl scraper to work with the dough if necessary. I have lots of info and tips about these flours, and more, and how they feel and handle in doughs coming in my book. The key in this instance, is not to be concerned.

The time to worry about your dough is when it’s impossible to work with, but that’s all fixable, check out the FAQ page on my site for more help. In the end, all that matters is how the dough bakes; if your loaves are fab, don’t worry about how the dough looks/feels/behaves, just keep doing what you’re doing!

Note: if your dough has over proved it may look bubbly and exuberant like the one in the photo and/or may be impossible to handle and shape, in this case, use it to make focaccia 🌟🌟🌟 method in the recipe index on my site…ps this dough was fine, it’s just a flour that likes to bubble 🤩🤩