Dough temperature – the number most people skip
A finished dough at 23 °C ferments the way the recipe says; at 28 °C it won't. How to work out the water temperature from flour, room and mixer. Step by step.
Quick answer: the target is a freshly mixed dough at around 23–25 °C – that is the temperature the rest of the recipe’s fermentation times are calculated for. If the dough is 28 °C instead, it ferments much faster than the schedule says, however precisely you weighed the yeast.
The formula bakers actually use
The classic bakery formula: water temperature = (desired dough temperature × 3) − (room temperature + flour temperature + friction factor). The friction factor is the heat the machine adds through kneading – zero for hand kneading, but several degrees for a spiral mixer running for a long time. In a 21 °C kitchen with flour at room temperature (21 °C) and hand kneading, you end up at about (25×3)−(21+21+0) = 33 °C water temperature to hit the target.
Why it’s worth the bother
Without control over dough temperature, all the other precision in the recipe is pointless – the same amount of yeast gives completely different results depending on whether the water came cold from the tap or was warmed. An ordinary digital thermometer in the dough after mixing is the simplest check you can do.
Read about the role of kneading in the kneading guide and about what happens if the temperature was off anyway in the fermentation guide. And for the numbers, head to the dough calculator.
