Retarding Dough How-To
I had great success with overnight retarding of my ciabatta dough. The flavor was sweet and nutty, the crust turned to a beautiful golden brown, and I got great big holes. I thought that trying an overnight stay in the fridge for my rustic bread would yield similar results. But I tried it this Saturday and my dough ended up with small uniform air pockets, and lacked in the rich develoepd taste of the ciabatta.
So I'm wondering what's the secret to overnight retarding of dough? How long does it need to warm back up? Should you knead once then put in the fridge, or knead twice and form? Should you use a poolish, as I did, or just mix all the ingredients and then retard the dough?
I think this method has a lot of promise, but I'm wondering how everyone else does it. Many thanks!
-Peter