Submitted by KMIAA on June 8, 2011 - 7:24pm

Power Outage & My Dough

I was in the middle of making bread.  I had put the bread in my pan to rise, put in the microwave to raise faster, which I never did before, turned my oven on to preheat.  Bread was in the microwave about 30 minutes, and the power went out.  Took the bread dough out of the microwave waited about 15 minutes to see if the power would come on which it didn't, so stuck it in the fridge.  The power came on about 10 minutes ago, and now it's after 10PM, and I don't want to do anything with the bread now as I have to go to bed early tonight as I'm having a test done at the hospital very early tomorrow  So, I don't know what to do.  Take it out of the fridge tomorrow and bake it right away or wait a few hours until it warms up.  This never happened before, so don't know exactly what to do, and if the dough is ruined.  Any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks!

Leave it there til you come home

I would knock it down and just put it in a covered,oiled container in the refrig and leave it there til you come home (tomorrow afternoon?) You sound like you have enough to worry about to get thru your day. Then take it out,shape,proof(may take a little longer due to the cold) and bake.

Are you in Wisconsin? We just had a wicked storm come through.

Good luck!

Power Outage

Thanks for the reply.  I llive in Georgia.  We had some rain & thunder, but wasn't a bad storm. Thanks for replying.

Probably a little late, but:

If it only had 30 min of proofing when you put it in the refrigerator, it probably had not risen very much and won't rise much more after it cools to refrigerator temperature.  I would probably just cover it, put it in a plastic bag to keep down evaporation, and let it go overnight.  In the AM, take it out and look at it.  If it is still in need of some proofing, let it sit out for a while; before you bake it if it looks ready to go, just bake it; if it has fallen, slap it around a little, reshape, and reproof at room temp and bake it when it is ready.

Thank you

for getting back to me on this.  Now, next time will know what to do.

Most breads will rise in the fridge

=== If it only had 30 min of proofing when you put it in the refrigerator, it probably had not risen very much and won't rise much more after it cools to refrigerator temperature. ===

Actually, most breads will rise quite nicely in the fridge.  The yeasts generate enought internal heat to keep growing for some time - generally, they run out of steam just as the bread is fully risen.  Often the flavor is much better after an overnight rise as well.

I spray the inside of the plastic garbage bag (clean!) with water from a mister, then tuck the pans or peel into the bag (generally with 1 or 2 tall glasses to prop up the plastic and keep it from draping on the dough) and put them on the lower fridge shelf.  Next morning turn on oven to heat, take out of fridge, and bake when oven hot.   I agree with Hamelman that whether you let the risen dough warm up before baking or not is stricly preference; it doesn't seem to make too much difference to the final result.

sPh

Rising In The Fridge

Thanks for your response.  My bread did not rise all that well.  I probably waited too long. It's ok, but not great, so I decided to do it over today but decided on a different recipe.  The new batch looks great.  Haven't cut into it yet. 

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