Temps are now rising, so the troubles I was having getting dough to rise are a thing of the past--at least until November. I have done a few more trials of
both methods discussed in the previous post. There is one issue with the short finishing cycle in the oven at 100 degrees: there'll be a lot of very large gas pockets in the dough. Shown below is a standard 50/50 loaf.
This isn't by itself a problem (though it poses certain challenges for peanut butter sandwiches; the peanut butter leaks out through the holes that go completely through a slice of bread). A lot of white breads look like this. However, there's a marked contrast between the loaf above and the one I referenced when discussing
soft wheat for bread baking:
Here there are a few larger holes, but the crumb looks a lot more uniform. In my baking this last winter, I saw this more often with the shorter cycle. When I left it in for the whole rising time I got what was more like a summer-risen loaf: uniform crumb with unimpressive oven spring. I'll do more work on this next fall. For now, temps in the house have risen to the mid-70s, so the dough rises well enough on its own.
Here there are a few larger holes, but the crumb looks a lot more uniform. In my baking this last winter, I saw this more often with the shorter cycle. When I left it in for the whole rising time I got what was more like a summer-risen loaf: uniform crumb with unimpressive oven spring. I'll do more work on this next fall. For now, temps in the house have risen to the mid-70s, so the dough rises well enough on its own.