Will my bread dough rise in the fridge? - Veg Patch Kitchen Cookery School (2024)

FAQs

Will my bread dough rise in the fridge? - Veg Patch Kitchen Cookery School? ›

Your dough will rise in the fridge and it can be a huge help as it makes bread making easy to fit into your day. When you put your dough in the fridge it slows the yeast activity down. It takes ten times longer for dough to rise in the fridge than it does at room temperature.

Yes, you can let your bread rise overnight in the fridge. Keep in mind, though, you'll want the dough to come back up to room temperature before baking.

Complete answer:

The yeast will be unable to respire if the dough is kept in the refrigerator, as yeast requires a specific temperature to respire and grow. In addition, the dough will not rise and will not emit any sour odours.

Refrigerating the dough allows the flour to fully hydrate and helps to make the cookie dough firmer. Firm dough prevents the cookies from spreading too much, which is why chilling the dough is a crucial step for cut-out and rolled cookies.

Bread dough rises best when it has the right temperature. When the temperature is too low, your dough won't rise. That's why you can put it in the refrigerator to slow down the rising process. If the temperature is too high the bread will rise quickly or even begin baking.

You can stop bread from proofing by putting the dough in a cold place, like your refrigerator. Colder temperatures will slow down the proofing process.

However, since you did a series of folds and then placed it in the fridge, you've slowed down the fermentation significantly. The cold temperature of the fridge will help to slow down the yeast activity and prevent the dough from overproofing further.

You can leave it in the fridge for up to 72 hours, then take it out an hour or two before you want to make your pizza. Once the dough has warmed to room temperature, you will find that it is easier to stretch because the gluten has had a chance to relax.

Overproofed is when the dough has rested too long and the yeast has continued making carbon dioxide while the strength of the dough (gluten bonds) have begun to wear out. The dough will look very puffy, but when you touch it or move it you may notice it deflate or sag.

Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.

What does refrigerating bread dough overnight do? ›

Slowing fermentation down by using the fridge helps to give the dough time to develop more complex flavours without over proving, as it would at room temperature.

Certain bacteria are developing in and on the dough. Most have no effect; some may be influencing the flavor. Fats are firming up, making handling the dough easier when it comes out of refrigeration.

“While you have some wiggle room with the first rise, the second rise needs to be more accurate to get a nice full loaf,” Maggie explains. If baked too soon or too late, loaves can collapse and have a dense, gummy center. “There are so many factors that affect rise time, so exact time will vary for every baker.

Cold proofing, or retarding, is where the shaped dough is placed into the refrigerator (or a dough retarder) to let proof for many hours at a cold temperature (usually overnight). Then, the dough is typically baked straight from the refrigerator or after it's brought up to room temperature.

If your bread dough doesn't rise, you can still use it and fix it by changing up the temperature or mixing in more yeast. Keep reading for instructions on how to revive your dough and learn the top reasons behind why dough won't rise.

Set the bowl of dough in the microwave and shut the door.

Leave the glass of water in the microwave with the dough. The glass of water and the heat from the microwave will create a warm, moist environment that will help the dough rise faster.

An airing cupboard is usually a good place to leave dough to rise but dough can rise in most places (you can even leave it to rise in the refrigerator overnight) it will just take slightly longer at a lower temperature. A warm kitchen worktop, sunny windowsill or somewhere close to a radiator often works.