November 11, 2019 - 11:34pm
Baking straight from fridge
Hello all, from hot and smokey Sydney. Horrid bushfires all around us.
I've been making sourdough for a few years, both no knead and normal proofing etc.
What I can't understand is this. If I put a loaf in the fridge to prove overnight , and in the morning it's still not fully risen, will it rise if I put it straight into the oven? And if so, how and why? Oven spring would need to basically double it, and I can't imagine that happening.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Badgie.
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In a cold final proof, some things are changed. For example, the dough won't grow as much as at room temp and that's normal. It's a much more gently proof. Also the finger poke test won't work as it's inaccurate in this method.
If you do a cold final proof, anything between 8-16 hours will be fine and still result in a good, if not better oven spring (due to the dough slowly warming up and the gases having more time to expand).
as banjp says gas compresses the colder it gets therefore you can get more gas into a smaller space ie. your loaf will not rise as much because there will be less gaseous activity. Yeast and bacteria also go to sleep around 4C so not much activity...a little but not much. When you put the loaf into a hot oven the gas will go into frenetic activity and rise very quickly and as youll have more gas in a cold proofed loaf than a warm one youll get a better spring.
the trick is to make sure you get the fermentation going before putting dough into fridge. And remember it takes around 30 minutes for a single loaf to cool down in the fridge. Of course all of this depends on your process, fridge and weight of dough.
It takes experimentation. What works for me might not work for you.
Thanks for the replies and explanation. Very clear explanations from you both.
Well, I put my loaf in the oven after 1hr out of fridge. There's been a reasonable oven spring, but not really enough. I thought the fermentation was adequate before I put the dough in the fridge, but maybe not quite enough.
Never mind. I shall persevere, maybe excellence is just around the corner!
Thanks again,
Badgie
why are you leaving bread out of fridge for an hour before going into oven. Just go from fridge to oven...you risk overproofing otherwise
I also bake straight from the fridge. Roughly I do it like this:
The dough has a good rise overnight in the bowl, but very little rise in the basket. So the ovenspring still amazes me every time.
Before I shaped in the evening and baked in the morning, that have me less ovenspring.
I'm still working on smaller holes ;-)
IMG_20191115_071635.jpg
i have done the bulk in fridge but i get better results doing final proof in there.