February 3, 2008 - 5:44am
Adapting recipes for the work day (out of the house)
I'm having a fair amount of success baking simple hearth loafs w/poolish but wanted to know if anyone has successfully adapted these recipes for a work-out-of-the-house schedule (ie when is the safest time in the process to refrigerate dough for 8 hours).
I'm at home 6:30-8:30 AM and 6:30-11:00 PM (and then asleep!) What's the best schedule for baking a hearth loaf during these hours?
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Hi, Melina.
You have what must be a very common problem. And the solution takes some planning. That's why lots of us are "weekend bakers."
I would say you need 3 days to do what you want optimally.
Day one: 8-10 pm: Mix poolish/refresh starter (if making sourdough). Let it sit on the counter over night.
Day two: 7 am: Refrigerate poolish/starter. 6:30 pm: Take out poolish and mix dough. Use warm water to compensate for cold poolish. Let dough ferment. Divide and shape. Cold retard loaves in frig.
Day three: AM (if weekend) or PM (if workday): Take out loaves. Proof. Bake.
This is a bare outline, of course. Timing of fermentation and proofing will depend on the formula, especially whether you use baker's yeast of sourdough or a combination. I'm also assuming the bread you make will be one that benefits from cold fermentation.
David
Melina,
Many recipes call for a preferment of 12-16 hours, so this is how I would do it.
6:30 am- mix your biga with ingredients you gathered/weighed the night before-use warmer than normal water to push the rising towards the 12 rather than 16 hour limit
6:30 pm- mix your main dough, adding the preferment from the morning - use warmer water again to push the bulk fermentation a little
8:30 pm- shape your dough after a couple of folds each 45 minutes
9:30 pm- bake
10:30 pm- eat some even though you're not supposed to since it's only been out of the oven for 15 minutes.
Most of Hamelman's recipes call for a similar time schedule.
That's my 2 cents.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
How about a recipe that would allow for a slow 10 hours primary fermentation?
If for example we used:
4 cups flour,
1.5 cups water, and
1.5 tsp salt,
At a temperature of around 70F, how much yeast would give you around a 10-11 hour initial rise time? 1/4th tsp? 1/8th, maybe?
Colin
I do this all of the time:
Day 1 - AM ... mix the preferment; PM mix the dough timed to shape the loafs about 10:00PM and put in fridge before going to bed.
Day 2 - AM first thing ... put bread directly from fridge to cold start oven and bake (usually a wee bit more time to compensate for the chilled dough)
Paul Kobulnicky
Baking in Ohio
That's exactly what my schedule is most of the time:
8 am - mix starter
7 pm - mix dough, bulk fermentation
10 pm - short proof
11 pm - retard
Bake first thing next morning. If your oven has a timer you can set it so that it is hot by the time you get up.