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does bread dough last a few days?

post #1 of 9
4/16/10 at 11:08pm
Thread Starter 
How well does bread dough keep?? id love to have fresh bread most days, but id really rather not have to physically make it, let ir prove, knead it etc every  morning (im not a morning person, its hard enough to brew my coffee!) so im wondering if i could make up a batch on the weekend form it, then freeze/refrigerate it so that i can take the dough out and throw it in the oven in the morning?

im following this recipe today

http://fromcooktotrainedchefandbeyond.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html

and so far the bread in the oven smells amazing - it seems to be working, however im no baker and manage to screw things up pretty easily! im trying to get better at baking, but am taking baby steps, reading the thread about the french loaf that was a bit heavy really threw me - too much info there for me to take in!! so at first i wont be bothered with alot of fiddly techniques or worrying too much about exact temperatures of things... i just want to get the basics right first!

in saying that - any hints on how i can get fresh out of the oven bread most days, without all the hard work, would be awesome. well the hard work will be done, just on sunday!
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post #2 of 9
4/17/10 at 4:35am
Check out the so-called no-knead breads. They may be exactly what you're looking for.
They have taken the oath of the brother in blood, in leavened bread and salt. Rudyard Kipling
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post #3 of 9
4/17/10 at 8:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaxstar84 View Post

How well does bread dough keep?? id love to have fresh bread most days, but id really rather not have to physically make it, let ir prove, knead it etc every  morning (im not a morning person, its hard enough to brew my coffee!) so im wondering if i could make up a batch on the weekend form it, then freeze/refrigerate it so that i can take the dough out and throw it in the oven in the morning?

im following this recipe today

http://fromcooktotrainedchefandbeyond.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html

and so far the bread in the oven smells amazing - it seems to be working, however im no baker and manage to screw things up pretty easily! im trying to get better at baking, but am taking baby steps, reading the thread about the french loaf that was a bit heavy really threw me - too much info there for me to take in!! so at first i wont be bothered with alot of fiddly techniques or worrying too much about exact temperatures of things... i just want to get the basics right first!

in saying that - any hints on how i can get fresh out of the oven bread most days, without all the hard work, would be awesome. well the hard work will be done, just on sunday!
 

I presume it's the foccacia recipe you are doing at the link??

As a general rule most bread doughs can be successfuly frozen but only after the first rise. To finish it you need to thaw it out in the fridge overnight, shape it and give it a second rise so it's not exactly out of the freezer into the oven. If you want to hold the dough in the fridge for a day or so you would need to adjust the formula using less yeast. The dough will continue to rise in the fridge but more slowly and less yeast will prevent it from overfermenting. Actually, this is a good thing; (the slow fermenting period in the fridge, that is) because it lets the yeast work its magic and produce a tastier bread. But, you are limiited to a couple of days at most in the fridge and you still have the shaping and rising time as with the frozen dough.
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post #4 of 9
4/17/10 at 10:20pm
Thread Starter 
oh, no its the french loaf recipe i was using! that foccacia was a bit time consuming, didnt have that much time!!

but yeah i have a book on order thats about making a base dough a nd then having it in the fridge and every day you take out what you nee and bake it fresh, each day the flavour develops further, getting closer to a sourdough by the end of the week... i dont think ill freeze it though...

so if i let it prove once, and then give it a quick knead then stick it in the fridge, covered, it will rise much more slowly but develop a better tasting bread... and then i can take it out, shape it and bake it?
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post #5 of 9
4/18/10 at 5:17am
Hi Jaxstar,

I think a sourdough recipe would be ideal for you, but dont be put off from the "sour" part of its name as you can control the sourness by shortening the fermenting period.... as I do.  I will be posting a blog in the next week or two when I get back to culinary school.

The basic premise is you mix flour with water and leave for a few days so wild yeast can breed in the dough, you feed it a few more times everyday to build a good colony of wild yeast in the starter.

When you have a dough that is ready, you simply take what you need, add more flour and water then leave to rise (about 18hrs ish).  you add more flour and water to the feremnt and that will be ready to use the enxt day and repeat the process.

Basically you would bake a loaf in the morning from teh previous day, then add more dough to your proving basket (search ebay) to bake teh next day. 

Dylan
Dylan

my blog following my journey at Tante Marie School of Cookery in the UK http://fromcooktotrainedchefandbeyond.blogspot.com
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post #6 of 9
4/18/10 at 7:44am
Thread Starter 
lol dylan, not sure if you noticed that im actually using YOUR recipe for the french loaf? I didnt know you were on here...

but yeah a sourdough was pretty much what i was going for, just have to find a recipe to tell me exactly what to do :) have a book coming telling me pretty much how to do all this, but am curious as to whether or not you guys have tried it and if so, how it all works out and the flavour etc.
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post #7 of 9
4/18/10 at 9:22am
I've tried freezing the dough before coz a friend suggested it, but it's too troublesome to thaw. 
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post #8 of 9
4/18/10 at 11:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaxstar84 View Post



so if i let it prove once, and then give it a quick knead then stick it in the fridge, covered, it will rise much more slowly but develop a better tasting bread... and then i can take it out, shape it and bake it?
 

Basically, yes. However, I understood from your original post that you want to be in a position to do all the grunt work up front and just bake off loaves each day. I'm saying I don't think you can do that; you need to be prepared to do some work before enjoying your daily bread.

Something else to think about too - the French bread you are making is in a catagory called "lean" doughs. That is, it is made up of the 4 basic bread ingredients: flour, water, salt and yeast and nothing else. It is actually one of the trickiest of doughs to make successfully because you need to manipulate time, temperature and the enzimatic action of the yeast to coax as much flavor out of a grain of flour as you can. It is well worth the effort in my opinion but it does need your full attention and may not meet your no muss, no fuss requirements.
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post #9 of 9
4/18/10 at 1:59pm
If the bread dough is a wet sponge, it keeps fine for days, though becomes little tart from lactic acid accumulation. Bread dough freezes well but on defrosting it's a good idea to add extra yeast to the dough as some of the frozen yeast cells seem to lose potency. Your bread will be as good as from fresh-made dough.

George (author of What Recipes don't Tell You)
George, Culinary Scientist and author of
http://whatrecipesdonttellyou.com
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