Help with my sourdough experiment
Hi,
Forgive me for the long post. I'm doing a sourdough bread experiment to see the difference between a cold bulk fermentation and a cold proof. I'd appreciate some guidance from you so I can do the experiment properly. I'm worried about overproofing the dough.
I'm using a 123 method of 250 g starter + 500 g filtered water + 750 g bread flour + 15 g salt. I made my predough earlier (all ingredients in except for the starter as per Trevor J. Wilson) and mixed it to a shaggy mass. It will stay in the fridge overnight. Tomorrow morning, I plan to bring out both the starter and predough from the fridge for about an hour before mixing them together. I will do alternating rest (20 minutes) and stretch and fold until it passes the windowpane test. Then I will scale the dough in half. After this point, the procedure puts them in different paths.
For Dough A (cold bulk fermentation): I can't decide if I should put the dough straight into the fridge or wait until it increases in volume a little. The dough will stay in the fridge overnight. The next day, I will leave it on the counter for an hour before shaping and panning it for a 2-3 hour room temperature proof or until it passes the poke test.
For Dough B (cold proof): I plan to do a room temperature bulk fermentation with S&F every hour for 4 hours then shape and pan. I again can't decide if I should put the dough straight into the fridge or wait until it increases in volume a little. The dough will stay in the fridge overnight. The next day, I will leave it on the counter for an hour before baking.
I plan to bake them the same way. 5 minutes at 450F, then 10 minutes at 425F then 30-40 minutes at 350F or until the crust is the colour I like.
My questions are:
1. For both doughs, should I wait until the volume increases or put them straight in the fridge? What factors should I consider when deciding?
3. What should I watch out for when doing a cold bulk fermentation and a cold proof so I don't over do it?
Thanks in advance for your help.
SnowPeaks
It depends on the dough temperature after mixing, dough batch and fridge temperature. For a small batch like yours, I would definitely let it ferment 30-60 min before cold bulk. But this is a trial and error process. If you will find out the next day that after bulk it risen 50% or more, that means that next time you will have to shorten the room temperature bulk before putting it to fridge. If it will not ferment enough (<30%), next time keep it longer.
same for dough B!
Thank you so much Fechetm. I'm so sorry that I didn't see your reply right away. My experiment didn't work out because I underbaked one of the loaves and I may have overproofed the other. I find it so frustrating to not be able to read my dough properly.
Sincerely,
Snowpeaks