Refrigerating your dough has some useful benefits from the cold temperature slowing the yeast activity. This improves flavor from fermentation and can also help fit into your daily schedule to bake at a convenient time. When it comes to baking the bread, you’ll be wondering if you need to bring it back to room temperature.
Can you bake cold bread dough? Yes, you can bake dough straight from the refrigerator – it does not need to come to room temperature. The dough has no problems from being baked cold and will bake evenly when baked in a very hot oven.
I’ve baked many loaves straight from the fridge with great results, and haven’t noticed any problems. This is usually how I make my best sourdough if I have the time. This method is mentioned commonly in booked and across the internet.
Refrigerating your dough actually has some great benefits – which I will cover in this article and also some tips to baking bread from the fridge.
How To Bake Dough Straight From The Fridge
The most convenient way to prepare bread dough using the fridge is to do the first rise at room temperature and then place it into the fridge for the final proof.
An example schedule could be to prepare any yeast or starter in the daytime, then mix your dough in the early evening and allow the first rise at room temperature. Late evening you can then shape the dough and place in a proofing container and transfer to the fridge overnight. The dough will be ready to bake the next morning.
Once it is fully proofed, you can bake it straight from the fridge. Make sure to get your oven hot – ideally heat it for around 30 minutes before putting the dough in. Removing the dough too early from the refrigerator will cause the yeast activity to rise and could mean you over ferment your dough if it was already ready to bake. This is why its best to bake straight from the fridge. I wouldn’t give it longer than 30 minutes if taken out.
Using a proofing basket like this one on Amazon keeps the dough in a good shape over the long proof – check out my article on proofing baskets. And remember to cover it or place it into an airtight bag so skin doesn’t form from drying out. I’ve got some ideas for dough covers in my article how to keep dough from drying out while rising. When ready to bake, turn this out onto a floured worktop and then place it onto a baking sheet or Dutch oven.
The cold temperature of a fridge slows down fermentation drastically, so allowing 8-12 hours in the fridge is not uncommon. You can test if the dough is fully proofed by poking a floured finger in half an inch. If it springs back very quickly then you need to give it more time.
Will It Bake Evenly?
It seems counterintuitive that baking straight from the fridge would work. Most foods are best brought back up to room temperature to cook – I’m thinking steaks or whole turkeys which cook unevenly if cold. But bread just works fine – it doesn’t seem to have any downsides of having a colder center. It must be a perfect combination of oven temperature, time and distribution of heat through the dough.
The best bread books in my house (such as Tartine, and FWYS) recommend baking bread straight from the refrigerator. In fact, all of them mention that if you are cooking two loaves, then you should keep the second one in the fridge until it is ready to bake. This is likely from a risk of over proofing if brought out too early.
From my own baking and from reading forums online, pretty much everyone has the same outcome that the dough bakes evenly whether cold or at room temperature. Remember to cool the bread properly after baking so the crumb is set. Read my guide bread cooling guide for the best slice.
Don’t Bring It To Room Temperature
Remember that if you bring the dough to room temperature, then the yeast activity will rise again. If you’ve spent all the time proofing your dough perfectly then it is far along its proofing limit. If you then decide to warm it up for an hour, then you run the risk of over proofing it. This has the characteristics of a weak, gassy dough which might collapse. Too much fermentation has happened, weakening the structure and allowing pockets of gas to escape which results in a dense bread.
Therefore it’s best to bake when it is perfectly proofed and not a minute later. It is also easier to predict the dough when it is at a stable cold temperature like the fridge. And that means you can be consistent with your results next time when you bake.
Benefits Of Cold Dough
Cooling the dough to delay the fermentation and rising (also known as retarding), has some well known benefits to bread making.
Flavor and Texture
By allowing more time to ferment slowly, the bread develops better flavor from the byproducts of fermentation – acids and alcohols. This can’t happen without slowing down the fermentation from putting the dough in the refrigerator. Here are a few more tips for improving bland homemade bread.
Also, the texture mellows as the dough ferments. The gluten breaks down, and the finished bread turns out softer and with a better texture.
A “Blistered” Crust
When you proof the dough overnight in the fridge, the baked dough comes out with a unique texture of small bubbles on the crust, which can be seen in the images of this post. This blistered effect comes from the gas escaping the surface of the cold dough. It’s a characteristic of a good sourdough which has had plenty of time rising in the cold.
Easier To Score
When the dough is cold, it is firm and is easier to make deeper cuts in with ease. When it’s warmer, it can be stickier and the blade gets caught. I have found that the best way to score bread and achieve a specific design is to do so on cold dough. I think the longer time in the fridge also helps form a harder outer layer on the dough, probably from the air contact.
Conclusion
I really like refrigerating dough for the added flavor, especially in sourdough. Also, the skin is easier to score deeply and cleanly for getting the bread to open up nicely (and get the scoring “ears”). If you haven’t tried refrigerating dough then you must – the depth of flavor that is added is fantastic.
My main tips would be to get a really hot oven, and also a baking stone or baking steel. This ensures a nice blast of heat to the bread when baking. You can then be confident of great bread time after time.
Once you bring the dough out of the cooler, keep it covered to prevent drying and let it temper at room temperature for upwards of 2½ hours or until the dough ball temperature reaches 50°F. Then you can take it to the make table for baking, and its propensity to bubble will be greatly reduced or even eliminated.
If you're talking about sourdough starter - ideally it should be room temperature before you add it to your dough. If it is used cold from the fridge it would take a long time to come to room temp and ferment the dough.
If it's in plastic from the grocery store (or freezer, you champ!) take it out of the plastic and move it to an oiled mixing bowl. Cover the bowl and set in a warm place for at least 30 minutes.
When you're ready to bake the dough, take it out of its storage container, shape it, let it rise until it has doubled in size and bake it. For a full-sized loaf, you'll need about an hour and a half of rising time; buns and rolls may require only 30 to 40 minutes.
Yes, you can bake dough straight from the refrigerator – it does not need to come to room temperature. The dough has no problems from being baked cold and will bake evenly when baked in a very hot oven.
"When your cookie dough is not refrigerated, the butter is at room temperature.Therefore the heat from the oven reacts with the butter quickly, making it spread thinner," says Epperson. And while some people prefer a crunchy, thin cookie, there are arguably many more people who like soft, thick cookies.
Cold oven bread baking is the idea that you don't need to preheat your oven when baking sourdough. Just pop the dough into an enamel, clay, or cast iron pot, pop on the lid, and bake away. For a no-fuss baker like myself, this method suits me to a tea!
A 24-hour rise time will produce much more sour bread than a 4-hour rise time. If using a shorter rise period, 4-12 hours, a second rise is optional. If desired, punch dough down, reshape, and proof a second time.
Yes, you can refrigerate bread dough, and in fact you will probably find that it will give you better, tastier results, because the yeast has more time to do its work. Any bread baker worth his salt (flour?) will tell you that a slow, cold rise is better than a fast, warm one.
Doughs should be proofed at a warm room temperature, ideally between 75°F and 80°F. If your room is too cold, you can place the dough in a standard oven (that is off) with no pilot light and the oven light turned on, or in a microwave (also off) next to a bowl of very hot water.
Place a bowl of water in the microwave. Heat for 2 minutes. Push the hot water to the side and add the covered dough to the microwave. close the microwave door so that the steam from the hot water heats the dough.
Dough that's left to rise at room temperature typically takes between two and four hours to double in size. If left overnight, dough can rise so high it will likely collapse on the weight of itself, making the dough deflate. For best results always keep dough in the refrigerator when leaving it to rise overnight.
You can leave the dough in the refrigerator for as long as 24 hours. When you need to use it, just take it out of the fridge, punch it down, and allow it to rest before shaping.
Most pie dough/pastry benefits from a rest in the refrigerator as it allows the glutens in the flour to relax - this should help to give a more tender pie crust with less shrinkage. It can also give time for the liquids in the dough to be absorbed, giving slightly less dry spots in the pastry.
The flour will also absorb more of the moisture so the thicker and chewier the final texture will be. After 72 hours the dough will begin to dry out and you risk it going bad, especially if chilling pre portioned balls of dough instead of the entire mass of dough.
Allowing the dough to remain longer in the refrigerator isn't beneficial, as an extended time in the refrigerator will lead to off flavors and diminished dough strength. I've let my shaped dough sit in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours with success, but I don't recommend longer than that.
After kneading, put the dough in a greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Punch the dough down after it's been in the fridge for 1 hour, then punch it down once every 24 hours after that. Dough will keep in the fridge for 3 days but it's best used within 48 hours.
Preheating your oven helps ensure your food goes from refrigerator cold to blazing hot more quickly — spending as little time in the danger zone as possible. And even if this is a short amount of time, just know that some bacteria can multiply in the danger zone in as little as 20 minutes.
If the loaf is browning too fast but doesn't sound hollow, cover the bread while baking by creating a tent out of foil to help prevent burning. Yeast breads containing butter and/or sugar often need this step.
Conversely, dough that rises too quickly produces bread with flat flavor. Nail the sweet spot — warm enough to rise at a decent rate, yet cool enough to develop flavor — and you're golden. Studies have shown that the optimum temperature for yeast to grow and flavor to develop is 75°F to 78°F.
You most definitely can bulk ferment sourdough too long. If you leave the dough to ferment for too long, it will become "over fermented". Over fermented dough will lose its structure and become a soupy, sloppy mess that you will not be able to shape.
There is of course a limit to how long you can proof your sourdough for. And if you do leave it too long, it eventually runs out of its food source (the starches and sugars in the dough), and over ferments.
For a fluffy bread texture, the key is to let the bread rise long enough. Now, you may be wondering “how long does it take for bread to rise?” The short answer is that it depends on the temperature of your kitchen. For bread to rise, yeast must be activated, and yeast is very sensitive to temperature.
It is possible to leave bread dough to rise overnight. This needs to be done in the refrigerator to prevent over-fermentation and doughs with an overnight rise will often have a stronger more yeasty flavour which some people prefer.
The best place to let dough rise is a very warm place. On a warm day, your counter will probably do just fine. But if your kitchen is cold, your oven is actually a great place. Preheat oven to 200 degrees for 1-2 minutes to get it nice and toasty, then turn it off.
You can set a heating pad on low, layer a dishtowel on top and then set down your bowl or pan of dough. This will give your bread some extra warmth. We recommend covering your dough with a tea towel or reusable wrap to keep the outside from drying out.
A Bowl of Steaming Water is the Key to Quickly Proofing Bread. In the winter, when your house and kitchen are at a crisp temperature and you need a warm spot for your dough to rise, create a makeshift “proof box” by placing a bowl of steaming water inside your oven alongside your bowl of dough.
Yes, you can let your bread rise overnight in the fridge. Keep in mind, though, you'll want the dough to come back up to room temperature before baking.
Colder temperatures mean that yeast will work more slowly, and your bread dough may not rise. Whether you're using a sourdough starter or baker's yeast in your breads, read, and watch, on to get my top tips on how to get bread to rise in cold weather.
As mentioned above, warm liquid helps activate the yeast. But if you end up warming the water/milk too much such that it is HOT instead of WARM, you will end up killing the yeast as you pour it into the ingredients. Therefore the dough will not rise.
You can store the bread dough in the fridge for 48 hours. But it is best to use it after 12 hours to get the best results. Take the bread dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature before baking.
When you're going to use the refrigerated dough, take it out of the fridge at least 1 hour before you're planning to bake pizza, to let it come to room temperature. You can now use it just like any room temperature fermented pizza dough.
Q: HOW LONG SHOULD I CHILL THE DOUGH? Anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. The longer you chill the dough, the more flavor will develop. The flour will also absorb more of the moisture so the thicker and chewier the final texture will be.
Can I leave my bread to rise overnight? Yes, you can let your bread rise overnight in the fridge. Keep in mind, though, you'll want the dough to come back up to room temperature before baking.
Pizza dough that has been left to rise for too long, or has been over-proofed, can potentially collapse. The gluten becomes overly relaxed, and the end product will be gummy or crumbly instead of crisp and fluffy.
Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread. In addition, the sugar in the dough gradually absorbs liquid.
Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.
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