overnight ferment

Barry

I baked a sour dough a couple of weeks ago(which the doe was fermented in the fridge overnight). The taste seems to be far superior to the other sourdough where the dough was fermented for 3 hours.
What are your experiences with this and why don't more recipes call for overnight fermentation if I'm on the right track?

Category: 
up
227 users have voted.

Replies

SourDom 2007 April 7

Barry,

overnight fermentation in the fridge (also called 'retarding' the dough) will certainly bring out the sour flavours of a dough.

But that is not always what people are looking for in a loaf, so it might not be appropriate. Furthermore it makes the whole baking process longer than usual, and given that often recipes are about trying to make things simple and attractive, they (the recipe authors) won't necessarily use this option. In a commercial setup, you obviously need quite a lot of fridge space to retard doughs, which is a logistic challenge.

That said, many of us (myself included) are thoroughly addicted to sourdough that has had a period of being in the fridge, both in terms of convenience, and flavour.

cheers
Dom

Barry 2007 April 8

I'm amazed at the small amout of kneading is actually needed to make good bread,
using an overnight fermentation, see blog posted above.
I'm doing Dan's chelsea buns at the moment with very little kneading be interesting to see how they come out.

Post Reply

Already a member? Login