February 11, 2014 - 1:36pm
Fermentation
A lot of recipes call for a fermentation period of 14 hours. Usually the subsequent mixture is used to make
dough which rises for 2 hours before baking. Can baking bread be delayed. In other words
place your fermentation in a refrigerator and then later use it for mixing dough? Because of work
and other prior commitments I cannot continue the bread making process after 14 hours of
fermentation? Comments would be appreciated..
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SD in bulk or to proof after a short ferment is dine all the time and the way to fit baking into a particular schedule the longer the retard the less levain you want to use. All of my breads are retarded it seems - to bring out the flavor and the sour.
Happy baking
With the breads I'm baking lately, I use a small quantity of sourdough starter, mix it with white bread flour to produce giga at about 65% hydration, let ferment for 12-16 hours at room temp, then place it in a 4 centigrade refrigerator. When I get back home I use that for the final build which then goes through about 1.5 hours bulk proof at room temp (aiming for a 23 centigrade final dough mix), and then after shaping there's another 1 hour or so of final proof before it goes in the oven.
I do find that the flavour develops further, even at the low fridge temperature. I own a couple of books but many of Suas' 'Advanced bread and pastry' bread recipes propose this as a method, either with sourdough bigs and a final mix with/without additional bakers' yeast added.