All rises in Fridge?

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hreik on 15 Jul 2018 at 13:06

So,  It's hot here in CT and muggy too.  I do a variation of on of Trevor's recipes as my fall back.... and am finding even if I do the bulk fermentation late in the evening and final rise in fridge overnight, it still over-proofs.  Today I did a 3 hour bulk rise at Room Temp (we have A/C set for 72º F) and final 1 1/2/ hour also at Room Temp.  I'm sure the flavor will suffer tho.  And I had to rescore after 7 minutes...., as I do these days b/c the scores are closing up on me.

So, has anyone done both rises in the fridge?  I may try that next weekend to see if it solves the problem.


Thanks in advance.

hester

Hester, if your dough is rising in the refrigerator, it may be because the temps are too high. I proof my doughs on the bottom shelf of the frig and there is very little rise over a 12-24 hour retard. My frig is 38F. Try leaving a glass of water in the frig where you place your bread. After a few hours take the water temperature. If the temp is over 40F, that may be your problem.

Dan

Guess what? Today I just completed the build on a retarder. Plan to post the build instructions soon.

Thanks for your reply.  So.... the fridge is very (very) old.  It's set for the coldest temp and since I can remember for the past 3 years, they do rise in the fridge.... but not so much until this heat wave.  My theory is that the yeasts are really cranked up from the heat and that continues for several hours after I put the loaves into the fridge.  I'll see what happens next weekend.  I intend to refrigerate the loaf during bulk and final rise.

Thanks again

hester

If your bread is rising too much for you liking in the refrigerator, you can...

  • Reduce the refrigerator temperature
  • Reduce the amount of your leavening agent

When making pizza dough, I prefer the flavor of dough that did its entire rise in the fridge, so sometimes I will increase the leavening in the recipe so that I can have a quicker rise in the fridge.

My fridge is at 38 degrees and I had a 650g dough that included 2g of instant yeast in the fridge last night. The dough rose about 20% in volume.

Best of Luck to you!

My fridge is already at the coldest setting, so I cannot reduce further.  I agree with you that altering the starter %age will help, but I love the flavor at 20%.   We'll see.  THanks again.

hester

Hester,

You are correct about the dough taking a while to cool down to the refrigerator temperature and during that time you will have a faster rise. You can hasten the cool down a few ways...

  • Pre-chill in your refrigerator a bucket of water large enough to hold your fermenting container (you optionally add ice to that container), then, when it is time to chill your dough, partially submerge the fermenting container in the icey water. This will supercharge the cooldown process by more than 2x.
  • Use a conductive bulk fermenting container. Use metal instead of plastic.
  • Use a bulk fermenting container that gives the dough more surface area.
  • Put your dough at the bottom most and back of the fridge. The bottom is much colder than the top and the back is colder than the front.
  • Stick the dough in your freezer for a bit... this is risky, if it is in there too long you might freeze the outermost portion of the dough.

I won't know what to use as a time for bulk fermentation tho.  I'll just have to experiment.  When I do it at RT, I just go until the dough is about 20-30% risen.... but right now that might be too much.  Maybe I should do an over night bulk fermentation as you describe, which will give me the flavor I want and then a simple RT final rise.

So much to think about.  Ty so much.  I'm very grateful.

hester

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Lazy Loafer on 15 Jul 2018 at 14:46

... mix the dough with chilled water and even chilled flour (from the fridge or freezer).