How to do french pastry fermentation in hot climate area?

[zteffer]

Hi

I am living in thailand bangkok, which the kitchen I have, the temperature always over 85F. under this condition, how can I do French pastry fermentation? I read several books they said it is better not over 70F. And I have tried to freeze flour for 24 hours before use, and the butter goes to 60F. but during the mixing the dough always raise over 80F. Also those books mentioned about the ferment is better below 70, but not in the fridge.

So the Question is how can I control the temperature to make the low temperature fermentation happened in Thailand?

Cheers,
Steve

 

[ShuBunny]

Steve, I have the same problem with heat and humidity. Watching this post to see what can be done. Thanks for asking.

 

[zteffer]

I am thinking to use a pot holding lots of water and put a rubber sealed glass container into the pot covered by a wet towel and let it submerge into the water, then using evaporation method to cooling down the temperature within the jar and see what temperature I can achieve.

 

[ShuBunny]

do you have a wine chiller?

 

[zteffer]

do you have a wine chiller?

no, indeed.

 

[ShuBunny]

the evaporation technique sounds pretty fun & complex - good luck with it! I was hoping you have an aircon room or something

 

[retired baker]

Ice water to start, 45F is ok, no way the dough should reach 80F, you're over mixing.
Reduce the bulk fermentation time, get it out of the bowl sooner and scale off, the idea is to slow the proof down by dividing it into smaller chunks of dough.

What product are you making, there are tricks to get around long mixing times to develop gluten in some doughs.

 

[zteffer]

Hi retired Baker, Thanks for the tips! will try by the end of this week.
I am using I am trying to make croissant, as either have a 39F Fridge, and an 87F Environment.

 

[retired baker]

ok, croissant it is. I made lots of croissant in that heat.
Ice water, chill the water overnite if you don't have an ice machine.
either way VERY cold water. If using milk its already chilled, I found milk powder to be better all around.
Dough made with dairy milk tends to be tougher to roll than water and milk powder.

Mix the dough, place dough on tray and cover with very damp but not dripping wet towel (I used 2 aprons), chill for 30 minutes.
The evaporation from the towel will super chill the dough even if it got too warm during the mixing.
60F for the butter is a tad on the warm side in a hot kitchen, you have no safety margin to play with at 60F.

you need to have the dough set up on the table ready to go , pound the butter and immediately place on the chilled dough,
the butter really has to be colder than 60F. From the cooler, pounded butter should be closer to 50F.

See my danish video for to get an idea how I pound and roll quickly.
In Paris before they had good refrigeration they used wet cloth to chill the dough, they also worked 3 basements below street level.

 

[chassis]

Refrigerator. It will take more time. Or a microwave with a bowl of ice cubes inside with the pastry.