Defrosting Bread Dough
Nov. 27th, 2010 02:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikSo K isn't in a bread eating mood, and I'm making bread anyway. Normally I deal with this by accosting neighbors (or Taiji people, or Zendo people, or lab people if it's a weekday) and foisting extra bread off on them. Getting rid of bread is a pleasant problem, really. (If I just knew the name of that retired Austrian engineer who lives here, I'd probably give it to him.) But it occurred to me that I haven't tried freezing bread dough for a while.
Now, this is sprouted wheat and rye bread leavened with a started I domesticated myself. Historically I haven't had much luck with freezing bread made with this starter, but there are a couple of differences. First, I formed the bread into a loaf and let it rise pretty well before freezing it (well, it's freezing now, it's sibling is in the oven). I figure this means the yeast doesn't have to come out of dormancy particularly well for it to turn out well. Second, I think the yeast population in the starter has changed substantially since I moved to Ohio.
I'm kind of excited about the prospect, because if it works I can get the efficiency of bigger batches of bread, and yet have fresh baked bread more frequently. (K suggests forming it into small loaves and baking it daily. To which I add "in the lab" because I am evil. Well, and because it would be a silly use of our big oven, but a good use of the toaster oven there. Need to find an appropriately sized baking stone...)
Anyhow... thoughts on the defrosting? I'm kind of thinking of putting it out for an hour or two at room temperature, to get a good start, and then putting it in the refrigerator for some hours longer to make sure the center also melts. Once it's frozen, I'll wrap it in plastic, but I was thinking of taking it out of the plastic and wrapping it in a dishtowel for the defrosting. But really? No particular clue.
Now, this is sprouted wheat and rye bread leavened with a started I domesticated myself. Historically I haven't had much luck with freezing bread made with this starter, but there are a couple of differences. First, I formed the bread into a loaf and let it rise pretty well before freezing it (well, it's freezing now, it's sibling is in the oven). I figure this means the yeast doesn't have to come out of dormancy particularly well for it to turn out well. Second, I think the yeast population in the starter has changed substantially since I moved to Ohio.
I'm kind of excited about the prospect, because if it works I can get the efficiency of bigger batches of bread, and yet have fresh baked bread more frequently. (K suggests forming it into small loaves and baking it daily. To which I add "in the lab" because I am evil. Well, and because it would be a silly use of our big oven, but a good use of the toaster oven there. Need to find an appropriately sized baking stone...)
Anyhow... thoughts on the defrosting? I'm kind of thinking of putting it out for an hour or two at room temperature, to get a good start, and then putting it in the refrigerator for some hours longer to make sure the center also melts. Once it's frozen, I'll wrap it in plastic, but I was thinking of taking it out of the plastic and wrapping it in a dishtowel for the defrosting. But really? No particular clue.
