The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Can A Single Person Eat All That Bread?

qwiksilver's picture
qwiksilver

Can A Single Person Eat All That Bread?

One thing that has held me back from making my own bread is being single.  I make a loaf and it goes bad before I can eat it all.  I'm hoping the basics I learn here can be either cut down or frozen so that I can make small loafs that don't go bad before I can eat them.

 

Any rules on freezing dough?  Before first rise?  After?  Shape loaf first? 

DanOMite's picture
DanOMite

Generally when it comes to freezing dough, you want to bring it to the final shape before freezing. Also you can always bake  a loaf, cut it up into thirds and take 1/3 of it and freeze the rest. Then from there take portions are you need.

josordoni's picture
josordoni

There are only two of us at home, and like you I can't eat all the bread before it goes stale.  So I don't freeze it as dough, I cook it and then freeze it.   I slice it, bag it 4 slices to a bag and freeze it like that. 

 I can take out a bag or two each time I want fresh bread, and either toast it from frozen for breakfast, or it only takes about half an hour to thaw out for sandwiches.  I find that slices seem to lose less character than a whole loaf when frozen and thawed.  And of course it is easier finding odd corners in the freezer to put the packages!

 

Lynne

Zigs's picture
Zigs

Doesn't putting dough in the freezer kill yeast, so that when taking the dough out of the freezer, there won't be any rise left?

gaaarp's picture
gaaarp

Zigs,

Your yeast won't die if you freeze the dough.  It just goes dormant and "wakes up" when you thaw it.  That's why you can freeze sourdough starter.  And why they can sell frozen bread dough at the supermarket. 

hansjoakim's picture
hansjoakim

i remember the term "bake-up pizzas" from a couple of years back. these were deep freezed pizzas that would have a tad oven spring when you baked them. i never tried them, but they stayed popular a while, here in norway. the yeast will die off in the freezer eventually, so to produce the "bake-up pizzas", they bumped up the yeast amount quite a bit compared to ordinary deep freezed pizzas, so that even after a prolonged stay in the freezer, the pizza would have some spring to it.

Hans Joakim

qwiksilver's picture
qwiksilver

Wow...just get it to shape stage, bag and toss in the freezer.  If Santa brings me that vacuum food sealer I can see bready things in my future.