April 1, 2019 - 6:55am
Help in adapting recipes for cold overnight proving
Hi all,
Since having kids, I can seem to find the time to bake using my old schedules, which were based on Forkish's recipes (non-sourdough) with my own tweaks and flour combo's. They all have short room temperature proofing times, and I can't arrange my life (nor my kid's lives) to give me the 2 hours I need during the day to get these baked. So, I need to shape the dough in the evening, chuck it in the fridge (2-6 degrees depending on location) overnight and bake first thing in the morning.
So, does anyone have any tips for what should I be aiming to change in the recipe and bulk fermentation to not get over or under fermented or over/under proofed dough?
Cheers
Tim
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a sourdough starter in the works?
hester
No
I feel I responded a bit too hastily to your question. Is there something in sourdough bread that makes it amenable to cold proofing? If so, I can head off down the sourdough route and to be fair, I was always going to, I just need some more time in my life.
that I asked that question is because the nature of sourdough lends itself to long slow and cold fermentation. It makes baking quite flexible. Sometimes I've had to go out in the middle of a bulk fermentation and I just shove the rising dough in the refrigerator and a few hours later when I return it hasn't done too too much. So my own opinion is that while you are working on cold straight dough breads, why not begin a starter. It will be a few weeks b/f it's usable anyway. We have a couple starter gurus here..... starting with Abe.
Good luck
hester
If by non-sourdough you mean commercial yeast (Instant yeast or active dry), the first thing that comes to mind would be to cut back on the amount of yeast used in the recipe. It may extend your BF time though. You would have to experiment to figure out what works with your schedule and environment. Take notes...
If you have Forkish's book FWSY he does have a recipe for an overnight white bread. It uses very little yeast. He also wrote a section on "Adjusting the Schedule" which touches on using refrigerated proofing. No time frames or quantities listed, just to put the banneton in a plastic bag to prevent the dough from drying out and toss it in the fridge overnight.
I noticed your fridge temps, 2C-6C, or roughly 36F-43F. Storing foods above 40F/4.4C is not safe. The higher fridge temps will also cause your dough to proof faster than you may think. It may only takes 6 hours instead of the 8 or 9 hours you were planning on.
Thanks for the tips. I had forgotten that section in FWYS (is that the right order). I will go back and reread it, but the yeast suggestion seems like the best place to start.
Re: the fridge. Have you ever taken temperature readings of every level of your fridge a) during the day when the door is being opened and closed all the time and b) during the night. My fridge with my family constantly in and out of it goes to 6 degrees at the bottom to 10 degrees on the top shelf. During the night, it drops to about 1 degree at the bottom, but 5-6 degrees at the top. So, we tend to only store bread, eggs and butter on the top shelf, things that could all happily on the bench if so desired...
You can probably tell that recording and taking notes is habit of mine.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread
I have read this recipe before, but now I see it has gone up behind a wall. It was such a fun recipe, excellent for people with absolutely no experience, and clearly they have looked at the slow bulk/proof issue. Do you know if there is a copy of it on this forum?
and is one of the most popular recipes posted in the NYT. Here's another link: https://diningforwomen.org/recipes/jim-laheys-no-knead-bread/
Should that also be behind a paywall, just google "Jim Lahey no knead bread" and you'll get at least a half dozen hits.
hester
The first thing I would look for is a new recipe. This problem has been solved, and trying to solve it again, by yourself, is probably more work than you hoped. Simpler to just follow a recipe already made for your purpose.
Half the fun is the experimentation. I work in a lab where I can't eat my experiments, bread baking is where I can. So, for me, I would rather alter my recipes and in the process learn and become a better baker.
Even if it is crumbled up for the birds! Or you can always soak it in egg and milk and make French toast!
Find a single recipe you think you might like and make it over and over. With each bake, keep notes, ask questions and change 1 thing to see how it affects the outcome. Come to learn how the ingredients behave in different circumstances-warm liquid, cold liquid, eggs present, sugar/no sugar, long fermentation, fast fermentation,etc,etc.
I also recommend you start with AP flour. It is the easiest flour to work with. If you want to go towards WW, it can require changing several handling techniques to get the best loaf. Especially if you go more than 30% WW flour in the recipe. Same with rye. So start with simple and add complexity as you go.
Have some delicious fun!