Summer doughs: managing proofing and maturation in the heat

When the heat arrives, anyone who bakes notices it straight away: the same recipe that gave you a perfect dough ball in March suddenly proofs far too quickly in July, turns sticky and slips out of your hands. It isn't a measuring error — it's the temperature. In summer, fermentation speeds up, and to keep making good pizza you need to change a few habits. Here's how.

Why dough "runs away" in summer

Proofing is a biological process, and like every biological process it is governed by temperature. Yeast works faster when it's warm: between 20 and 40 °C the rate of fermentation increases progressively as the temperature rises, with the optimum range for yeast cell multiplication sitting around 25–30 °C. This means a dough left at room temperature in a summer kitchen can rise — and go past its peak — far sooner than you'd expect.

And timing isn't the only risk. A dough that ferments too quickly develops unevenly: the gluten network weakens before the starches have had time to complete their maturation, and the result is a pizza that is less digestible, hard to open and with less structure in the crust.

Proofing and maturation are not the same thing

There's a distinction worth remembering, and in summer it becomes crucial. Proofing is the production of carbon dioxide by the yeast: it's what makes the dough swell. Maturation, on the other hand, is the work of enzymes breaking starches and proteins down into simpler elements: it's what makes the pizza light and digestible.

The problem with heat is that it accelerates the former enormously and the latter comparatively little. If we simply leave the dough to "do its thing" in a warm room, it will be swollen but not yet mature. The summer goal, therefore, is to slow the proofing down so that maturation has time to complete — and the main tool for that is temperature management.

Five things to do when baking in the heat

1. Use cold water (or iced water)

This is the simplest and most effective lever. The final temperature of the dough depends largely on the temperature of the water: using water straight from the fridge, or even with a few ice cubes, helps keep the dough within a controlled range (ideally below 24 °C at the end of mixing). If you're using a mixer, remember that friction generates heat too: cold water compensates for it.

2. Make the fridge work for you: cold maturation

Cold fermentation — retarding the dough — is the most reliable answer to summer heat. After a short start at room temperature, the dough goes into the fridge at 1–4 °C: here proofing is strongly slowed down (though not entirely stopped), while the enzymes in the flour continue to break down starches and proteins. It is precisely this gap between slowed yeast and still-active enzymes that makes 24, 48 or 72 hours of maturation possible without the risk of over-proofing. It's the principle behind flours designed for long maturation.

3. Adjust the amount of yeast

In summer you need less yeast. Much less. The quantities used in winter will send fermentation out of control in the heat. Cutting the yeast percentage — even by half compared with the colder months — is both normal and necessary. Better a little yeast and more time than a lot of yeast and a race against the clock.

4. Choose the right flour for the time you want

Not every flour can handle long maturation. A stronger flour (with a higher W value) has a gluten network capable of sustaining long fermentation without giving way. If the plan is to use the fridge for 48 or 72 hours, you need a flour built for that timeframe. That's the thinking behind our H-Series line, where each reference is engineered for a specific maturation window.

5. Learn to read the signs of over-proofing

A dough that has gone too far is recognisable: the surface is covered in bubbles, it deflates when touched, it has a pronounced sour and alcoholic smell, and when you open it, it tears instead of stretching. Spotting these signs in time lets you correct course — sometimes it's enough to shape and bake earlier, other times it's better to accept it and adjust for the next batch. In summer, every mistake is a lesson about temperature.

In short

Heat isn't the enemy of dough: it's simply one more variable to manage. Cold water, intelligent use of the fridge, less yeast, a flour suited to the timings you want, and a careful eye on what the dough is telling you — that's all it takes to keep turning out excellent pizza right through August. The difference between a successful summer pizza and a failed one is almost always measured in degrees.

Want to try a flour designed for long maturation? Discover our Organic Pizza Flour for home baking, or the professional H-Series line for the pizzeria.

Sources

• Lesaffre — The role of yeast in breadmaking (technical document): the parameters affecting yeast activity and the relationship between temperature and fermentation speed.
• Quine Business Publisher — Cold fermentation in breadmaking and pizza: the relationship between proofing and maturation rates at different temperatures, and how dough behaves in the fridge at 1–4 °C.
• Alessio Forestieri — Dough temperature: optimum yeast temperature, the thermal effect of the mixer and how to calculate water temperature.
• Pasta Madre Lover — Temperatures and formulas in breadmaking: the working temperature ranges of yeast and the slowdown of fermentation at low temperatures.
• Pasta Madre Lover — Fermentation in breadmaking: the exothermic nature of fermentation and the use of cold techniques.