No measure, no pleasure

In gluten-free bread making we can skip many things compared to regular sourdough bread. One of them is bulk fermentation which main purpose is to activate gluten development. Although it’s great to toss out the name, we do need the process of a warm fermentation to activate bacteria and yeast cells, sometimes followed by a cold fermentation to further develop flavour. This critical point where you switch from warm to cold determines whether your bread will be under, over or perfectly fermented, so it’s an important skill to master.

But how do you know if the dough is ready for a ‘cold retard’? Most homebakers I am sure will do this visually. Has the dough risen? Allright, let’s put it in the fridge. But you never know if the rise was too much or too little. More accurate is to take a measuring cup, put in a piece of dough and and wait for it to hit a certain percentage of rise. That could work in some cases and its success depends on how much marker dough you use and on the type of vessel you use to put the marker dough in. But with new ingredients coming up that show considerable rise during the first 12 hours of really cold fermentation (!), this technique is getting outdated in a gluten-free approach.

I discovered that the maximum rise of your dough is also a very good indicator. And a great way of tackling temperature fluctuations during the seasons. In addition, there is another, very accurate measurement. As some of you may know: fermentation activity can be linked to pH. Monitoring pH can definitely help you in determining the tipping point, together with percentage rise, temperature and time. Baking gluten-free sourdough bread gets easier, more predictable, planable, well, basically gives you more control. Some say all this monitoring takes away the fun and romance of baking, but it’s actually the other way around: no measure, no pleasure. Think about that.
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