Hi,
I am making my first loaves of whole wheat sourdough with a nice fresh active rye starter. I am using freshly ground organic whole wheat flour which I think is rather special. Anyway, I have made my dough and have it sitting in a warm place, for 1.5 hours now. Trouble is, I do not want to be up all night, I am one tired mumma. What should I do.. can I retard the dough at this stage?
It is too late to expect anyone to be answering my questions, but I live in hope.. if no one is about, this is what I am going to do.
I am going to wait another 30 mins and have a nice long shower and wash my hair, then knead the dough, and put it back in its bowl and put it outside in the cold overnight ( it will be about 2 degrees Celcius tonight, maybe a little less ) and go to bed.
Now, when I get up tomorrow morning and continue- what should I do?
I would love some answers, I would love the bread to be edible and I would really hate to have to start again ( mostly because of the expense- the process is fun though! ).
Next time though, I will figure out the best time to start making bread.
Thanks,
Yogaguerilla
Replies
You're probably tucked up in bed now! However, although I've not done this myself so far, I have read that dough can be proved in the fridge for some hours, then brought back to room temperature & continue as normal with no adverse effects. It is high temps that kills off the yeastie beasties, isn't it?
I'm a relative newcomer to sourdough & am discovering that it seems to be somewhat forgiving of callously chilly treatment. I arrived back home yesterday after almost 3 weeks away, hoping that my month-old sourdough starter would have survived in the fridge. So far it looks good; I've just given a 3rd feeding ready for the big test of making a loaf. Good luck with yours.
Not sure why I'm just getting this, but I hope your bread came out fine. I have become a devotee of the cold proof, and nearly everything I bake now gets at least 1 night in the fridge or outside if the temp is apprpriate, 3 days is the average, and 5 days in the cold is common.
I just finished my first sourdough cinnamon rolls of the season, and those got 2 days in the fridge.
My particular starter seems to love the cold, and sometimes, I have to shorten the proofing time I had originally planned for, because it grows right out of the bowl.
Depending on the stage it's at when I put it in the cold, I'll typically let it warm up for about half the usual doubling time before I put it in to bake. This is typically about 3 hours, but I have baked right out of the cold and had good results, too.
Good baking,
-zz