Will my bread dough rise in the fridge? - Veg Patch Kitchen Cookery School (2024)

FAQs

Will my bread dough rise in the fridge? - Veg Patch Kitchen Cookery School? ›

Your dough will rise in the fridge and it can be a huge help as it makes bread making easy to fit into your day. When you put your dough in the fridge it slows the yeast activity down. It takes ten times longer for dough to rise in the fridge than it does at room temperature.

In lieu of a typical 1- to 3-hour rise at room temperature, you'd opt for a long (8- to 12-hour) rise in the refrigerator. This slow refrigerated rise is referred to as "cold fermentation" and has many benefits ranging from flexibility to flavor.

A warm kitchen worktop, sunny windowsill or somewhere close to a radiator often works. You can also leave dough to rise in an oven but you do need to be very careful and also have an oven that can deal with lower temperatures.

Yes, absolutely. Room temperature can mean a wide range and is different for each room, but as long as the temperature is around 68 to 76°F (20 to 24°C), you'll get rise in your sourdough bread dough. The cooler the temperature, the longer it will take for your dough to rise.

You can stop bread from proofing by putting the dough in a cold place, like your refrigerator. Colder temperatures will slow down the proofing process.

However, since you did a series of folds and then placed it in the fridge, you've slowed down the fermentation significantly. The cold temperature of the fridge will help to slow down the yeast activity and prevent the dough from overproofing further.

For the rest of you who just skim (I know you're out there), three to five days of cold fermentation is your best bet for dramatically improving your dough's flavor, texture, and workability. In my fridge, which keeps at around 38°F, loss of quality started to occur around day 6.

These dry patches won't stretch during rising to develop an elastic dough, resulting in a dense, squat loaf – not something you want! For best results, use a non-porous, tight fitting cover such as a saucepan lid, bowl cover or even a sheet pan laid on top of the bowl, weighted down with something.

Generally speaking, a warm, humid environment is best for rising bread. For deeper flavour (and convenience), most doughs can be put in the fridge for their second rise and left to prove overnight. This sounds wrong, given that doughs rise fastest in warm conditions, but it really does work.

Generally, I like to proof bread dough in the fridge for 10 to 16 hours (usually overnight, baking it the next day in the morning).

Can I bake bread dough straight from the fridge? ›

If it fits better with your day ahead you can leave your dough to ferment at room temperature for an hour or two, then when its risen and full of air, shape it and pop it the fridge to do its second rise as a shaped loaf. You can then preheat the oven and bake the loaf straight from the fridge.

It may be flat or if it is proofed and baked in a tin, then the sides of it will start spilling over. It will not rise as it is baking either.

Yes, you can refrigerate bread dough after first rise, before shaping or even after shaping and bake it later. If you refrigerate it immediately after first rise without shaping, you can refrigerate for longer, even overnight.

Place your dough in a steamed oven or microwave

This creates the ideal environment for dough rising; it is heated just right, and unlike that mentioned earlier, it is dewy! When the time's up, place the dough in the oven and quickly close the door. You don't want all that good heat to escape!

When making a refrigerated dough , mix and knead then place in covered bowl in refrigerator to rise. Dough will double in bulk before it becomes chilled. Shape into bread or rolls and bake it the next day. Sometimes when refrigerated this method is called COOL-PROOFED OR COOL-RISE METHOD.

“If the dough has risen too long, it's going to feel fragile and might even collapse as you poke it,” says Maggie. If this is the case, there's a chance you can save your dough by giving it a quick re-shape. Learn more about this fix in our blog on saving overproofed dough.

Because the yeast has longer to work on the flour, the flavours become more complex and perhaps more sour. If you are a fan of sourdough bread, this could be a great way to develop a more flavoursome loaf. If you are not a fan of sourdough, though, an overnight prove could be a less attractive idea.

Most recipes call for the bread to double in size – this can take one to three hours, depending on the temperature, moisture in the dough, the development of the gluten, and the ingredients used. Generally speaking, a warm, humid environment is best for rising bread.

Everything's coming together when you discover that your bread dough just isn't rising. Fortunately, this is a problem that's relatively easy to diagnose and solve. If your bread dough doesn't rise, you can still use it and fix it by changing up the temperature or mixing in more yeast.