Refrigerating dough first rise

Toast

I started a whole wheat/barley flour with a bit of rice flour bread this evening and the process took longer than expected.  I find myself having to refrigerate the dough with the first rise not done.  I punched it down and covered the bowl with saran wrap.  I won't be able to get back to it until after work tomorrow.  Do I simply let the "first' rise continue?

Thanks

 Ari

Difficult to judge than during the final proof. However I would think it depends on a few factors...

1. How much starter is in the recipe?

2. At what stage did it go into the fridge? 

If you have used a good percentage of starter and you retarded the dough half way through the bulk ferment then I think it will be ready after spending a long while in the fridge. Sounds as if it'll be close to 24 hours. 

Take it out of the fridge and bring it to room temperature and see what the dough is like. If it's aerated, billowy and elastic then its ready. Move onto the final proofing. 

After such a long time in the fridge the only reason why it might not be ready is if you used a very small ratio of starter and you retarded it too soon. 

Remember it does carry on in the fridge for a while, albeit slower, so in all probability it should be ready. Not sure if you needed to de-gas it though. I would have just covered and refrigerated. 

done,  Not putting it in the fridge for as long as you were going to be gone would have ruined it for sure.  Now you can do a quick preshape right out of the firdge cold and then do a final shape 1 hour later and then let it proof in a rice floured basket util it is ready for the oven.  So no worries

When you run out of time, the correct answer is usually put it in the fridge because...the fridge is your friend and way beter than a German Baking Apprentice 2nd Class!

Happy baking

Well, when I got home from work I let it warm up/rise for about 3 hours, shaped the dough into two loaves and let rise again.  Unfortunately they came out rather flat and dense.  I made then again but dropped the rice four (not sure why it was there to begin with) and substituted bread flour for half of the whole wheat.   They did not rise as high as some others I've made but I think that may be because of the barley flour. 

They were made with 2 packets of Fleischman's Rapid Rise.  I put one in a banneton which I think helped a lot.  The other which was all free form is flatter.

I'm also still working on keeping my free form breads from deflating too much when I slide them from the peel and onto the stone

 Ari