Hello, due to work commitments the only day I’ll be able to bake is in Thursday and I’d like to have the bread ready for Friday morning, if I start early on Thursday eg fermentolyse at 8 am at the latest, is it possible to make a decent loaf? I could put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up in the evening prior to baking. Thanks for any advice.
Plus a pleasant change to the flavor, more wheaty and less sour. It also can give you a better perspective on the final proof. The scoring and loading is a little more challenging than a chilled loaf but doable.
I seldom do an overnight cold retard nowadays as I prefer my bread to be less sour. Definitely a same day bake is quite possible. I’ll often give the dough an hour in the freezer to firm it up a bit for scoring ease.
Benny
Thanks guys this is very encouraging. I’ll try a pop in the freezer and report back on the results.
Belated apologies for not posting earlier. In the end I changed my schedule so I could do an overnight fridge retard. Ended up quite well. I don’t have the confidence yet to do an all day bake, I’d miss the firmness and ease of transferring to DO you get with a retarded loaf. I’m continuing to work on my bread and am finding one of the most important factors for me has been keeping dough temperature to 24-26C during BF, it’s taken me years but I’ve realised the average unseated kitchen temperature isn’t high enough for most of the year here in England,