August 23, 2024 - 12:10pm
New member from the Texas Gulf Coast
I have been making bread for some time, and I've also done quite a bit of pizza dough. I thought already signed up for this forum. I guess not. I am trying to figure out the logistics of being able to bake bread on the weekdays, which would mean baking in the evening, as the long preheat and a 40-minute bake would necessitate me getting up too early. The Pizza Making Forum has resources for yeast percentages for any given temperature vs fermentation time. I will search the forum for something similar.
John
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One way to manage time restrictions is to retard the dough in the refrigerator, either during bulk fermentation, final proofing, or both. You could mix up dough in 10 minutes after work and then refrigerate it just before going to bed. The next night or the one after you could take it out just after work, shape it into loaves, and let them proof until bedtime. Then it's back to the refrigerator for them.
The next day, which might be on the weekend, preheat the oven, take those loaves out and bake them while still cold. Yes, that can work well.
Or mix-and-match to suit your schedule. The bread will taste better because of the extra fermentation time. It may taste more sour, and if you don't like that then maybe these methods won't work for you. But any sourness can be mild, and maybe you will like it that way.
TomP
Thank you for the comment. I figured I could mix the dough, start a cold fermentation of the dough, and bake at a later date, but I was wondering how much yeast to use. The Pizza Making Forum has fermentation times for a particular yeast percentage vs time. I was wondering if this forum had that kind of resource. I could just choose the closest one to my schedule and modify the yeast percentage. I re-read Ken Forkish book over the weekend and he touched somewhat on that. I do appreciate your comment and suggestion.
I would just use the amount of yeast the recipe calls for and retard after it gets to rising. That would give you a good start. The dough will keep fermenting in the refrigerator but much more slowly, of course.
I'm not sure if you are thinking about bread or pizza here. Pizza might be a little more demanding if you are looking for some exact crust qualities. Otherwise you will have a lot of leeway.
I'm thinking of bread, I used the pizza table as an example of what I was searching for. This weekend I tried Ken Forkish overnight Saturday Bread and it was over-proofed. It still ate good, but flattened out and didn't hold its shape. My house is kept at 68 degrees and I tried to compensate for that by keeping the dough bucket in the closed microwave with some hot tap water in a 4-cup measuring cup. I likely overshot well above room temperature by doing that. I will get to slinging dough and give it a whirl to see what I get. I do keep a journal with my various breads and pizzas. Eventually, I'll make another sourdough starter. You have given me a good starting point, thank you again for the help.