Timing Bread: Why Baking Is the Best Argument for Multiple Timers
Bread has more timing stages than almost anything else you can make. Here's how to set up a sequence that covers the whole bake without losing track of where you are.
Bread is an argument for better timer tools. A simple sourdough loaf has five or six distinct timed stages, some of which overlap, some of which can't be interrupted, and one of which — the bake — you really don't want to forget.
Most people manage this with a combination of phone alarms named "bread??", sticky notes, and the vague anxiety that something is about to be overproofed.
There's a better way.
The stages of a sourdough bake
A typical same-day sourdough timeline looks something like this:
- Autolyse — 30:00 to 60:00
- Mix and add levain — then bulk fermentation — 240:00 to 300:00 (temperature-dependent)
- Stretch and fold reminders — every 30:00 during bulk, 4 rounds
- Pre-shape rest — 20:00 to 30:00
- Final shape and cold proof — overnight, so no timer needed
- Score and bake covered — 20:00
- Bake uncovered — 25:00
- Cool — minimum 60:00
That's eight distinct timing events. Some of them chain — the stretch and fold reminders repeat every 30 minutes during bulk. Some run independently. And the cool period at the end is the one everyone skips and then wonders why the crumb is gummy.
Building the sequence
In Tempo, build the bake-day sequence as a chain:
- "Autolyse" — 45:00
- "Stretch & fold 1" — 30:00
- "Stretch & fold 2" — 30:00
- "Stretch & fold 3" — 30:00
- "Stretch & fold 4" — 30:00
- "Pre-shape rest" — 25:00
- "Bake covered" — 20:00
- "Bake uncovered" — 25:00
- "Cool — don't cut yet" — 60:00
The stretch and fold timers fire at 30-minute intervals through bulk. Each one is a reminder to do the fold, not the entire bulk duration — if you want to track bulk as a whole, run a parallel countdown for the full bulk window alongside the fold reminders.
Name the last timer something deliberate. "Cool — don't cut yet" is more useful than "Cool" when you've just pulled a beautiful loaf and every instinct is telling you to slice it immediately.
The parallel option for bulk
Bulk fermentation is time and temperature-dependent — you're watching the dough as much as the clock. Running a parallel countdown for the bulk window alongside your fold reminders gives you both: the overall window in view, the fold reminders firing at the right intervals within it.
Two timers, both running, different purposes. That's what parallel timers are for.
Saving it for next time
Save the sequence to your library. Name it something specific — "Sourdough — same day" or "Sourdough — 75% hydration". Next bake, load it in one click. You're not rebuilding from memory, you're running the same sequence you've refined over multiple bakes.
If your timings shift — longer bulk in summer, shorter autolyse when you're in a rush — update the saved sequence and overwrite it. Your library stays current.
The cool timer
Worth singling out: the cooling period is the most skipped timer in bread baking and the one that has the most impact on the finished loaf. The crumb continues to set as the bread cools. Cutting too early results in a gummy interior regardless of how well everything else went.
Chaining a 60-minute cool timer at the end of the bake means it starts automatically when the bake finishes. You don't decide whether to skip it. The timer decides for you.