Am I the only one who thinks a cold kitchen made my bread worse, not better?

Everyone in my baking group swears you have to let dough rise at 68F or cooler, and I followed that rule for 3 years in my drafty Seattle apartment. Two months ago I got tired of waiting 4 hours for a rise, so I put my bowl on top of the fridge where it sits around 82F. Same recipe, same flour, and my loaves went from dense and flat to tall with a way better crumb in about 6 weeks. My starter even smells less like nail polish now. So is the cold rise thing just something we repeat because it sounds fancy, or am I missing why folks stick with it?

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murray.robert1d ago

Cold rises are not about making better bread in a vacuum, they're about making better FLAVOR. The long slow ferment lets the yeast throw off more of those tasty compounds, and it also gives the enzymes time to break down starches, which is why your crumb texture can change too. Where your old setup went wrong was probably the draft, not the temp. A cold kitchen with cold drafts hitting the bowl is brutal on dough no matter what number the thermometer says. 82F on the fridge is honestly a fine spot for a lot of recipes, but you're getting a faster rise and a milder taste, which is a real trade off. The nail polish smell going away tells me your starter was stressed before, probably from the temp swinging around. So yeah, your bread got better, but I wouldn't toss out the whole cold rise thing based on one apartment.

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