You can use a bread machine, and there is nothing wrong with that, but that is not what we are talking about here.

The game here is to make minimalist bread from the classic 4 basic ingredients: flour, yeast, salt, and water.

Sourdough bread is something else really. Yes it is just a different yeast in theory. But in practice, theory is not the same as practice.

• 6 steps to brilliant bread
• 4 ingredient artisan bread

Temperature to get dough to rise

The general recommendation is a temperature of 75-80, so I say, shoot for 80. I saw one source claim that a minimum of 100 F is required, but after some research, I simply don't buy it.

Warmer temperatures will certainly get faster results. Every 10C rise (18F) doubles the rate of yeast metabolism. So 88F will be twice as fast as 70F.

Another source says 27C (80F) is the optimal temperature (just as I selected above!)

One source says:

Optimal yeast growth happens at around 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but dough will rise at any room temperature.
Yeast dies at anything above 50 C (122 F).

Note the warning about staying below 122 F and don't get carried away.
The following article says that temperatures above 90F will kill sourdough yeast.

• Dough rising and temperature
• How warm the dough

I proof my dough at 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit (24 to 26 Celsius).
To keep the temperature constant, I place my dough in a large cooler with a 10 to 15 watt light bulb and a thermometer. I can then prop the lid open to various degrees to get the right temp

Making a batch 1-13-2026

So, 3C of flour, 2 tsp salt, and 1-1/4 C water added to the yeast foam made a nice dough. Knead for 2 sessions of 5 minutes with a short rest between and in an hour or two had risen to at least doubled.

I dumped it out, gently kneaded it into a ball, and put it (covered) in the refrigerator for the night. I just wanted to go to bed. It nearly doubled again overnight, but of course the dough is quite cold in the morning and takes a couple of hours to warm up again. If I had gone right into shaping and the second rise last night when the dough was still warm, it would have gone quickly.

After the dough had warmed, I kneaded it gently into a ball again and then used a pastry scraper to split it into 8 equal pieces. I shaped them into balls, tapped the bottoms on some cornmeal in lieu of greasing the cookie sheet I used and let them rise for 1-2 hours. Then I baked them in a conventional oven at 450 for 20 minutes.

They came out great. There was quite a bit of spring in the oven and they had a cake like texture (no doubt due to the double rise and kneading). They were just barely getting a bit of brown color when I pulled them. A total success.

Kick starting things

It only makes sense that giving the yeast a head start with the sugar and water speeds things up. Perhaps it "wakes up" the yeast, but more likely it just doubles or triples the number of yeast organisms. Whatever the case, it is beneficial.