Quick Question....

Trishinomaha on 2 Jun 2007 at 15:57

Good evening all!

 If y'all haven't gone out for dinner at a nice, romantic yet this Saturday night - I have a quick question. I've got two batch of Essential's Columbia in its first rise. (Got started later than I planned). For anyone who's made this or this type of bread - would overnight retardation in the fridge just "do it in"? Otherwise I'll be baking till the wee hours of the morning. Hubby is at boy's week-end out so I guess I could do that but...as age creeps upon us it's nice to crawl in with a good book about 10:30 or 11:00...

 

Thanks all!

 Trish in Omaha

I'm not sure if you mean the first or second rise? I know people have done overnight rises of this one in cool mudrooms in wintertime, as it's a pretty slow moving dough. I've made this one a few times, and I think it would be fine in the fridge too, for the first or second rise.  I would let it warm up for a good couple of hours the next day and then shape or bake,depending on what you ended up doing.

 

I know the feeling, I've had batches run late and ended up going to bed really late or throwing it in the fridge.

 

 

Got it! This is my first attempt so if it turns out well I'll post photos...

 Thanks

And either way seems to work fine. With me, it depends on how much room I have in the fridge. Can always find a place for an oiled plastic bag full of dough, harder to find places to put bannetons, bowls or sheet pans. No worries.

Susan from San Diego

Your fridge sounds like mine - I never thought of using a plastic bag! Thanks for the suggestion! Who knew so many people were home on a Saturday night - although it's only 6:30 PM here in Omaha

I've fermented the dough overnight in the fridge and I've fermented the loaves overnight in the fridge and both worked very good. It is a lot easier finding a place for a bowl or bag of dough in the refridgerator but it sure is nice to take fermented loaves out ready to finish rising and baking. One time I took the loaves out of the fridge and they looked well risen and I was afraid to over-ferment so I baked them after only an hour and could tell they could have risen much more and they would have had a better crumb if I let them go at least a couple of hours. Good luck.                                                                                      weavershouse

A Sunday update - the bread seems to have survived its overnight rest in the fridge. I let it warm a bit before shaping into batards. It seems to have a lot of bubbles and the batards are rising nicely - keeping my fingers crossed and will let you all know how it turns out~

 Trish

How did the bread do? Hope all went well.                                                        weavershouse
You mentioned you could have let your retarded loaves proof more once outside the fridge and I wondered did you also experience that they didn't have as much oven spring?  I ask because I just experienced this with some loaves I bake often - Thom Leonard.  They were about half as high as normal and I think that dough was just so darn cold (due to my too-cold fridge...grrrr) and that I was obviously too anxious to get them baked rather than give them the time they needed. 
The loaves did rise in the fridge and I was worried they would fall if I let them rise longer but something told me I should wait. I didn't and they did not have good oven spring at all. About half as high as normal like you said. Next time I let them go till I was sure they were ready...a good poke that did not come back much at all. Then they were very large. I posted a picture somewhere on this site. If you want to see them search under Columbia. I have two or three different posts of the Columbia. The latest one shows the largest ovenspring. We learn a little at a time, don't we. As long as we're having fun. Good luck.                                               weavershouse

Oh, thanks for the info.  I thought I was losing my mind just when I felt I had made a but of headway in that department.  Oddly, the dough did stay fairly indented when I poked but I honestly believe it was still just too darn cold.  Argh! :o)  I mean, I have had such great luck with that recipe and this time they more resembled hocky pucks.  I had spent so many hours making that bread and it does make you wince to see an entire batch of loaves that doesn't come out so well.  LOL.  I'll look up your Columbia posts and thanks again for the info.

Trish - how did your bread turn out? 

Trish, I make Columbia often as it is one of my favorites.  I have to retard the dough or the shaped loaves or it would never work in the real-world of time even with a flexible schedule.  Here is a thread you should read because there is some good info there on how retarding affects the dough.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2653/retarding-fridge-final-proof

I recently realized that my refrigerator is running way too cold and would take forever to warm up retarded bulk dough but it still worked.  I retard shaped loaves every time I make Columbia or Thom Leonard and they barely rise, due to the too-cold temps but that even works.  Still with proper refrigerator temps it would work even better. (Its getting fixed tomorrow...YAY!) 

I'm still rotten at understanding how to judge proper proofs but generally you only have to wait a couple or three hours after removing shaped loaves to let them warm up, proof enough and then bake. 

Hope your bread turned out wonderful.  It is such great bread!  I did get to go out last night, btw, and saw Mr. Brooks - wow, good creepy thriller.  Sorry I didn't get to see your question earlier. 

Essential's Columbia: Hi all - just wanted to share a picture of my finished results. I retarded the bread overnight in the fridge and next day formed the loaves and let rise for about 3.5 hours. I was pretty pleased with both the crust and the crumb. The people at my office snarfed down a whole loaf by 11:00 AM! LOLOLEssential's Columbia: Hi all - just wanted to share a picture of my finished results. I retarded the bread overnight in the fridge and next day formed the loaves and let rise for about 3.5 hours. I was pretty pleased with both the crust and the crumb. The people at my office snarfed down a whole loaf by 11:00 AM! LOLOL
I'm so happy that all turned out so well for you.  Isn't that an easy way to bake bread having all the hard work out of the way the day before?  Your Columbia looks awesome!  Beautiful crumb.
That bread looks perfect. I guess I always make mine into shorter fatter loaves but next time I'm going to do it like yours. How did they taste?Bring on the olive oil!                                                    weavershouse

I feel like I'm really starting to understand this process and like I said - patience, patience, patience. I've got some Farm House White Sandwich bread in the oven right now and it smells sooooooooo good. It's nice to have a success now and then like this - guess it's what keeps us going. BTW - the flavor of this bread is amazing! I think with all the different flours and the barley malt syrup it just makes it scrumptious... It hardly needs butter or olive oil.

Trish