Proofing bread overnight in fridge: estimating time change from 80°F to 39°F?
I'm a very novice home baker currently baking boules hewing pretty close to the version of below "no-knead" bread recipe, (which works very well for me)
https://brodandtaylor.com/no-knead-bread-recipe/
In my kitchen, the final proof for this ~550g boule takes about 90 minutes at 80°F/27°C in a Banneton.
I want to do an overnight proof in my fridge at ~39°F/4°C in a Banneton.
How do I best estimate proofing time given the above info?
I realize you need to call proof and test the dough, but I don't want to stay up all night hovering over it....
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More details:.I don't use 5% rye, just 100% KA bread flour, but otherwise follow the recipe identically. This version of "no knead" bread actually has some stretches and folds in the bulk ferment phase as well as less yeast and more salt…which makes working with the dough much better in my hands. The yeast I use is SAF Red Instant..
FWIW The reason why I want to proof in the fridge is that this dough still ”spreads out” despite having formed a reasonably nice boule with some tension, ….immediately after I score it just before putting it in the combo cooker. It just "lets go" of all that tension when I make the cut and spreads (it still looks "domed, and you can see oven spring is OK, but it becomes...deformed). My thinking is keeping it a few hours cooler would firm up the dough and help scoring both with dough texture and not allowing the deformation. The boule above had even been chilled in the freezer for 20 mins to try and give it some texture, but gave the same "spreading" result as an unchilled boule yesterday....
But when my starter developed mold I had to make yeasted bread while my new starter was building.
I used this recipe:
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018203-simple-crusty-bread
And got good results. Very simple bread. Very quick to make and surprisingly enjoyable. Just mixed it in glass bowl, covered the bowl with a damp kitchen towel, let it rise, shaped it and baked it. Half the time I didn't even score it. I made boules and batards and baked them in clay bakers.
I much prefer the flavor and texture of sourdough bread but this experience reminded me that SD takes a lot more time and labor. And it is still worth it. Happy baking.
Strength can be built by:
- less hydration
- more gluten development (kneading)
- less fermentation (shorter bulk fermentation and proofing times)
- lower temperatures throughout all of the above
The precise time for bulk fermentation overnight in the refrigerator isn't important in my view. Take it out in the morning, shape, proof and bake.
What do you think about overnight *PROOFING* in the fridge? How time dependent is that?
This was great advice. I took the recipe above, dropped hydration to 68% but otherwise left it the same (other %ages, times, folds). I then pull-shaped the boule twice rather than once (once before and once after bench rest). then let it proof cold in the banneton, in the fridge for 7h.
It kept its boule shape, when taken out of the banneton..... When I used the lame, it cut easily and did not spread, got a nice oven spring....
https://imgur.com/a/yd8FpCn
fingers crossed for the crumb in 1h or so
Overnight to me means, overnight. In my view precise timing is not needed.
For me, precision in baking needs to be emphasized on weighing ingredients, followed by order and method of mixing and working.
Time for each of the various steps of preparation is relatively forgiving in my view. For example bulk fermentation and proofing do not have to be done with extremely precise time. Baking time is also forgiving, to a point. I am working under the assumption that you are not a professional baker, seeking a certification, awards or recognition.
Good morning lalochezia. I cannot answer your specific question but offer you how I bake as, hopefully, a helpful perspective. Background, my house was build in 1894. The basement is a cellar, fairly high humidity in winter, at least 70%. (Great to store potatoes.) The ambient temperature holds at 58 degrees F. As nowhere upstairs has any 80 degree F 'wonderful-to-proof-bread-in' spaces, I decided, from my readings, to try long fermentation proofing in what has become a very reliable method for me. Dough goes into the cellar at @8:30 PM, and comes back upstairs when I get up, typically, (with the help of cats,) at @5AM. The doughs will have risen somewhat, never fully. And they have never overproofed. At this time of year, they need another two hours to reach ambient room temperatue, @ 69 degrees F. Sometimes I'll warm the oven a bit and put them in, to hurry things along. Sometimes I wait that two hours, and then put them in. I am looking for that definite rise, and the appearance I've learned to recognize as the "It's close to time to punch it down". I'm assuming you know the appearance. (By the way, I've previously calibrated the temps in my oven by measuring the temperature of a water in a dish sitting on the rack, at different oven settngs. I've gotten to know the oven quite well, how hot it gets, how quickly, and how long it holds that just-below-100-degrees F temp I need to complete the bulk proof.) The dough gets punched down and shaped into pan loaves or batards. In about 1 1/2 -2 hours I can bake it. I have a stone, and get a consistent oven spring with batards and loaves. That is my routine for proofing dough mixed in the evenings. For bread mixed mid-mornings, I also bulk proof in the cellar. However, rather than stay up until midnight, I have begun putting the shaped loaves in the fridge, an overnight retard at 38 degrees F. And the point to which I've been aiming to help answer your difficulties, I read, maybe at TFL, "and I bake them cold". And I do. I take the loaves out of the fridge at 5AM, and they go into the oven by about 5:45AM. (My oven, to 450 degrees F, in 1 1/2 hours.) The scoring works very well on cold dough. The oven spring is consistent.
I hope this is helpful. BTW, I'm quite new to all this, starting only this past November.
Temperature matters a lot. There are critical temperatures for various critters doing fermentation and a bit warmer results in much faster fermentation than a bit colder.
Different sourdough starters are different and sourdough is different from yeast.
Flour matters – different flours ferment at very different rates.
The amount of yeast or starter (and quality) matters.
Learn to judge when a dough is ready for the next step by sight and touch. Sight and touch is more reliable than the clock considering all the above variables.
Learn how long it takes for your oven to preheat, and learn to synchronize dough and oven.
That said, cold dough ferments much more slowly than warm dough so timing is much less critical.
These days, I give my breads a few hours at room temperature, a 12-hour cold bulk ferment, then the loaves go into bannetons and proof another 12-hours in the cold, and finally another couple of hours at room temperature. It is that last segment of the proof where I have to watch the loaves, and get the timing correct. In the summer, I may move the loaves to room temp, at 5 am, so I can bake at 7am in the cool of the morning, and open windows to keep the house cool. Yes, sometimes bakers still have to get up in the dark of night for their craft.