Thursday was dull and mild following on from overnight rain. Despite the lack of sunshine it turned out to be the warmest day (19.8°C) since the 28th March when it reached 21.9°C.
Having watched the “Hairy Bikers” baking their way around Europe I was fascinated by the many specialist bread makers who left their dough to rise for 24 hours in the fridge. I had always believed that the dough needed to be left somewhere warm to rise and that the cold of the fridge would kill the yeast. I thought it might be worth seeing if dough would rise overnight in the fridge. If it did it could be knocked back, and left to rise in the morning before baking ready for lunchtime.
The dough was made around 19:00 and placed in a bowl. I reckoned it had plenty of room to double in size in this bowl, my usual check that the dough has risen enough, if indeed it was going to rise at all. After covering with cling film it went into the fridge to rise.
I did have a sneaky look in the fridge later in the evening and the dough had already just about filled the bowl. I was concerned that in the morning I would open the fridge door and be met with dough oozing out of the door!
I needn't have worried as in the morning the dough had completely filled the bowl but not escaped around the edges. So now it would be more normal bread making. The dough was kneaded again and formed into some rather rustic looking teacakes which were left to rise until they had doubled in size.
These were baked in the oven giving them just enough time to cool for a lunch time treat.
Surprising my very slow rise dough turned out well. It’s pretty convenient to be able to make the dough, leave it to rise overnight, then bake the following morning. I wonder how long that dough would last in the fridge before use?
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That's interesting. I use my breadmaker to make the dough, but make it in to breadcakes and bake in the oven, the breadmaker never bakes it quite right.
ReplyDeleteI use our breadmaker too and the resulting loaves are pretty good. I don't use it for making breadcakes though.
ReplyDeleteWell Martyn, another Hairy Biker victim!
ReplyDeleteI use a breadmaker dough setting to start off most of my loaves, and have been experimenting with 48 hr rises in the refrigerator. (Both the Hairy Biker German "slow" baker and the French baguette baker used 48 hr fermentations). My copies/experimentations are recorded on my Rye Smile blog. I'm really pissed off that the iPlayer records have been wiped out. I didn't even see some of the episodes!
Your results are really impressive. You must be pleased.
Hope Sue is OK now that you're "off on one"!
I just enjoy the bread Mal, although there are some aspects of the Hairy Bikers' activities that I hope Martyn doesn't latch on to!
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