- 0 to 4 °C → Very firm, hard, sometimes brittle
- 12–16 °C → Supple, malleable, still fairly firm
- 18 to 22 °C → Creamy: smooth and very pliable
- 23 to 28 °C → Very soft, increasingly greasy and shiny
- 28 to 34 °C → Melted or nearly melted
- +35 °C → Liquid
What’s more, everything works against you: the temperature in the kitchen, the temperature of your countertop, and even the rolling pin you use on the dough.
That’s why, if you’re working with or rolling out dough and it’s difficult because it’s too soft, there’s no point in struggling: place the dough on a baking sheet and chill it, 15 minutes in the fridge or 5 minutes in the freezer, until it becomes just firm enough and pleasant to work with.
And you can repeat this process of chilling the dough as many times as necessary throughout your work.
To address the same problem, pastry chefs use refrigerated tables (which they call "tours"), made of marble or metal, which allow them to work with dough that’s ideally firm, even if their kitchen or bakery isn’t air-conditioned.
There’s no need to struggle with dough that’s too warm and difficult to work with—a quick trip to the fridge will fix everything in just a few minutes.
Note that we’ve been using pie dough as an example from the start, but this really applies to any dough containing butter— brioche dough that’s too warm, for example, is also a nightmare to work with.
In the same vein, cake batters are also affected. We don’t really handle them directly since we usually pour the batter into a pan, but even so, a cold cake batter is always an advantage, both when pouring into the pan and during baking.
Batter recipes that use melted or browned butter—such as madeleines, financiers, etc.—are also included. Although the butter is melted or browned during preparation, once the batter is ready, it’s still best to chill it to make pouring and baking easier.
