November 22, 2011 - 5:40am
Guidelines on how to extend rising times?
Hello, I'm trying to find some guidelines on how I can extend rising times in bread recipes, to achieve an 8-12 hour (overnight) rise at room temperature (UK). (I.e a dough which I can make up, bulk prove for however long, then shape and let it rise for 8 - 12 hours overnight, ready to bake it in the morning). I assume this would involve a combination of making the dough up with cold water/cutting down the yeast/using less sourdough leaven (depending on the recipe), but I'm at a loss to know in what ratios each element should be reduced, per extra hour of rising time required. Any ideas?
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Put it in the refrigerator.
I appreciate this would be the simplest solution, but I share a fridge with eight others, leaving fridge space fairly limited. Certainly there is no room to have loaves proving in the fridge, leaving a "room temperature" overnight rise the only option.
If it's not cold enough outside, maybe and ice chest? ;D
If you were trying to slow the bulk rise, changing starter amount and/or water temperature would work (after some experimentation). For proofing, I can't really think of anything you could use (other than cold(or changing the time constant of the universe)) to achieve this.
Thomas, if you can perfect a dial-able modification for "the time constant of the universe" I'd love to order one... LUV it.
Ron
Ha ha.
I borrowed that from Star Trek. Here's a link to the quote.
It's probably my favorite science fiction quote of all time.
I have seen every Star Trek, since the very start - at least once ;-) One of the few advantages of age is one starts to forget enough that one can watch a mystery a second time and still be surprised by who did the deed LOL. Thanks for the reminder.
Ron
Mini
This isn't really possible. After the primary fermentation, you have a healthy population of yeast (and bacteria if you are using sourdough) in a room temperature or warmer dough. Any changes you made in temperature or leavening concentration at the start of the recipe have been negated by this point. You could cool the dough off in the fridge somewhat before it has completed primary fermentation, letting it finish as it cools, then shape it cold (could be difficult depending on the dough), and leave it out to slowly proof as it warms overnight. I suspect you don't have the fridge space for this either. Can you proof outside?
Aside from completely abandoning the two step fermentation process, I don't see what else you could do.
You might want to take a look at this article.
cheers,
gary