April 11, 2009 - 8:05pm
Reinhart's Stickybuns - Overnight retardation?
I am pondering making Reinhart's sticky buns for breakfast tomorrow. I do not, however, want to be up at 6 am to start my dough and then go back to sleep! Can this be mixed up and allowed to rise slowly in the fridge overnight? Would it likely be just-about doubled in size by, say, 9 am tomorrow morning (roughly 11 hours from now) if I were to do this? I haven't done anything to alter the timing of my bread before, and have always worked my schedule around my bread. I'd rather not have my breakfast somewhere around brunch, however!
I'm away and can't check my book, but my recollection is that Reinhart recommends an overnight retard for this formula.
Paul
You can either mix it and give it a 2 hour rise/doubling and then shape it and proof for another 75-90 mins then bake, or you can shape and then refrigerate for up to 2 days. Problem is, you then have to allow it 3-4 hours to warm up to room temp in order to bake.
So... I guess it's looking like brunch either way. For some reason it didn't click that I'd have to really let it get back up to room temp after taking it out of the fridge!
Still... I'll be up late tonight. I could always get up zombie-like and take them out of the fridge and go back to bed so that they'd be ready to bake.
I can only imagine what life as a professional baker must be like.
My mother-in-law has been baking sweet rolls and assorted coffee breads for 6 decades and told me long ago that because of scheduling for work or family/church gatherings she makes the dough in the evening, does the bulk fermentation, then shapes into buns, coffee loaves, etc., and chills it. I'm not into getting up in the wee hours to start dough, and have done her method for 30 years with good result. Depending on when we hope to eat breakfast (and upon the amount of yeast in the dough), I get up about 1-1/2 hours ahead, set the covered pan on the counter, and go back to bed. When rolls are nearly doubled, preheat oven and bake. They always bake nice & tall as long as I don't over-proof in the morning (by pushing the snooze button on the alarm). It's nice to have fresh-baked with little effort in the morning.