January 28, 2006 - 3:27pm
Freezing dough
A question that came to me via email:
Good morning. I love my homemade breads, but can't often find the time
to bake. We don't care for bread that's frozen after baking - can I
freeze the dough for use later and, if so, how? How long can I store
the frozen dough? Would vacuum sealing be practical & extend the time
the dough can be stored in the freezer? Thanks - I'm a rank amateur at
this & haven't found an answer in any of my cookbooks
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I've only frozen my pizza dough. I move it from the freezer to the fridge the day before I want to bake it. That has worked great with dough that I've had in the freezer for up to 4 to 6 weeks.
I don't see why the same thing wouldn't work for bread dough. I'd be concerned that if it was already shaped the center may take too long to thaw out, but perhaps 24 hours would be enough.
My suggestion is just to try it and let us know how it comes out!
Elagins@sbcglobal.net
I've frozen both doughs and preferments with a lot of success. According to Peter Reinhart, dough will keep frozen for three months: mine hasn't ever lasted that long, but I've kept pizza dough, which I make in 64 oz (8 x 8oz) batches, for over a month without any loss of quality. In fact, it seems that the freezing relaxes the gluten considerably, making it possible to get nice thin crusts.
Also, I routinely freeze my breads as soon as they're cool ... stick them in a plastic bag and into the freezer. I do that because I bake 3-4 loaves at a time and we can't finish them fast enough. I've found that there's absolutely no loss of quality when I let the loaves thaw at room temp ... even the crusts retain their crispness.
In all, I love my freezer almost as much as I do my baking stone.