Bagels won't rise in the fridge
I made bagels this weekend, and yesterday I got the dough mixed, and I kneaded it (by hand) for 15 minutes, then let it proof for 2 hours, then formed them into bagels and put them in the fridge to rise overnight covered with a damp towel. And this morning my bagels haven't risen in the fridge! This is the second time this has happened, but I've followed the recipe exactly both times so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'm wondering if I'm overworking the dough? But everything I've read says it's really hard to overwork dough, but after kneading my dough is a little lumpy and it's not tacky, it springs back when I poke it but all the research I've seen tells me it needs to be smooth and tacky. The dough definitely rises when I proof it, but I'll admit I'm not entirely sure if it doubles, It looks about twice as big but I've made other breads where the dough has gotten a lot bigger after rising, so I'm not sure. I just want less dense bagels. Please help.
Update: I pulled them out of the fridge and hour ago and they've started rising! I don't think they'll pass a float test at this point but they've started getting poofeir! Why didn't they do that in the fridge?!
The yeast is not active at very low temperatures.
for my bread in the fridge and find my results are much better if I leave the shaped loaves on the counter for 45 minutes to an hour.
There are a lot of variables but to answer your question, your bagels will only continue to rise from the “carry over” effect- that is until they’re reached a certain temp in the fridge. The other big variable is that refrigerators can vary as much as 10 degrees in temp so if mine is set at 40 and yours is 32, my bagels will rise more than yours. I’d also say if you are using the boil method make sure it’s a rolling boil, they will puff up nicely during this stage (it wakes up the yeast) and make sure they pass the float test (caveat being overproofed bagels will flatten during boiling so boil for shorter duration until you have your temp and sroutine worked out)