To make outstanding bread, it’s crucial to have a solid understanding of how to keep your dough. The dough can over ferment on the counter, go wrong in the fridge, and lose quality if it’s kept in the freezer for too long.
This article should be able to assist you whether you’re interested in different methods of preserving your dough or you’ve allowed it to be proof for a more extended period than you intended and are unsure if it’s okay.
How Long Will Dough Last in the Fridge?
Placing it in the refrigerator is an excellent method to give your dough a more nuanced flavor while significantly slowing down its rise. If you’re busy or don’t feel like baking today, you can save your dough in the fridge for a bit before you need to bake it.
The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for at least 3-5 days, but you should check on it frequently. When the dough has nearly doubled in size, it should be pounded down and given time to rise again. When ready to use the dough, please wait until it heats back up to room temperature before using it as usual.
You can still achieve a remarkable rise because the refrigerator’s chilly temperature slows down rather than entirely stops your dough’s proofing. Many people keep their dough in the fridge since doing so enhances the bread’s flavor and texture.
However, storing your dough in the refrigerator throughout the final rise is feasible. Most people keep their dough in the fridge during the first rise, so they may knock it back if it is too excessive.
It’s riskier, but it can also be a terrific way to get fresh bread later on without putting in a lot of work if you do the last proof in the refrigerator. Prepare your dough as usual, then chill it after shaping.
Make sure the dough isn’t overproofed by keeping an eye on it. Since it is already formed, the issue is exacerbated if it is over-proven.
Since loaves came out so well, I prefer to do this with them. Early in the afternoon, I combine the ingredients, prove my bread, shape it, and place it in the refrigerator to proof overnight. When I wake up, the dough has adequately risen and is prepared to be baked into fresh breakfast bread.
What is the Shelf Life of Dough in the Freezer?
It’s a terrific way to save time and effort to prepare some dough ahead of time, remove it from the freezer, and bake it the following day. Fresh bread can be baked at any time of the day.
A simple dough made of flour, water, salt, and yeast can be frozen for up to three months without significantly affecting the dough’s quality. It’s recommended to utilize dough with additional ingredients, including dairy products, within a month.
After removing the dough from the freezer, baking bread is simple, and it simply needs to be defrosted, proofed, then baked.
You can’t simply place a ball of dough in the freezer after preparing it, and you must be careful to place the dough in the appropriate container in the proper stage of the procedure.
You should knead the dough and allow it to go through the first rise as usual if you want to freeze it. Once the dough has sufficiently risen, you may form it and freeze it in the correct container.
Depending on what you’re freezing, a different container is needed. Line the pan with greased/oiled plastic wrap for a loaf before adding the dough. The loaf can be carefully wrapped in plastic, put into an airtight freezer bag, and frozen entirely once the exterior has frozen.
You can lightly grease the dough in an airtight frozen bag before placing it in the freezer to create any ball or roll to avoid sticking.
How to Keep Bread in the Fridge?
There are a few considerations to remember while you are chilling the dough.
In this section, let’s discover more about them.
Put the Dough in a Dry Container
You can put the dough in any container of your choice once it is prepared. Never keep it on a plate or any flat object. The dough will be exposed to the environment if you use a plate.
Furthermore, you don’t want that to occur with your money. Get a container or basin instead, and put the dough inside.
Drizzle Some Oil Over the Dough
Apply some oil to the dough before placing it in the refrigerator. The oil aids in the formation of a barrier that shields the dough, thereby thwarting dangerous microbes. You can use clarified butter or other vegetable oil for this purpose.
- Reminder: You don’t need to apply much oil to the surface.
Only a few drips are required to glaze the dough.
Cover it with a Plate or Cling Film
Finally, wrap the dish or container in cling film If you like, you could wrap this film directly around the dough before putting it in the container. Both approaches are effective in keeping the dough tight and safe.
You can cover the bowl with a plate or lid if you don’t have the movie. However, the film will offer better protection and add a few extra days to the storage term.
These three simple processes should be followed in total if you wish to keep the dough fresh in the refrigerator.
How do You Know When Dough is Bad?
To determine if the dough has gone wrong or not, look out for a few odd indicators. The presence of dough is, of course, the first indication.
It may be a symptom of mold growth if there are any noticeable, huge dark spots on the surface. The stench is a second issue.
You can smell the dough to determine whether any unpleasant smells emanate. It’s a sure sign that your dough is old and needs to be completely thrown out. Never make any bread or pizza with such dough.
Why do Dough Spots Turn Black?
The dough’s black patches appeared for a few different reasons. The oxidation process resulting from the dough’s bran is the primary cause.
As this process proceeds, you will notice that the dough has developed little black patches. It has a typical appearance, and using the dough is trouble-free.
Mold overgrowth is related to the second reason. Long-term dough storage promotes bacterial and fungal growth on the surface. The dough develops black patches as a result of this.
Additionally, it would help if you didn’t use this dough for frying or baking.
What Must Four Things be Done While Storing Dough in the Fridge?
The list of requirements is as follows:
- Your dough ought to be moist. That is correct!
- It should always be moist when storing dough in the fridge or freezer.
- The refrigerator will absorb the moisture from the dough when you store it there, leaving the dough dry.
Therefore, it’s beneficial for your dough to have more moisture and suppleness.
Quick Tip: You can knead the dough again with some water and oil if it becomes dry while refrigerated.
Properly Knead the Dough before Putting it in the Refrigerator
Making the ideal dough always requires careful kneading. It becomes much more crucial when you wish to store information for a while.
Who knows why? Well, after your dough is refrigerated, you can’t get the same texture from it.
So, before storing your dough, you must give it the best texture and consistency.
Check to See that the Storage Container is Tidy
You should make sure that the dish or container is clean. Never store your dough in a dirty or stained container. The dough will immediately spoil if not. You can also wrap it in cling film and put it inside the container for added security.
Retain it in Small Tabs
It’s the one item that many people overlook while storing a lot of dollars.
If you store it in an enormous container, you need to open it whenever you want to use the dough.
And it’s not a sensible move to do that!
The dough should be kept in separate containers and small batches if you want to store it for a long time. In this manner, you can only utilize the amount of needed dough and discard the rest.
How to Prevent Excessive Fermentation in the Dough?
Either lower temperature or yeast. Pay closer attention to your recipe’s precise ratios and the dough’s temperature if you want to be extra confident.
By calculating ratios to the total amount of flour, Bakers Percentage enables you to compare recipes (divide the ingredient against the flour and multiply by 100 for a percentage).
Use the proper dough and storage temperature. A dough with 0.06 percent yeast can be left out of the refrigerator and kept at room temperature for 18 hours. A 1.5 percent yeast dough won’t keep for more than a few hours. However, this dough can be stored in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
Reduce the amount of yeast you use. For convenience, you can find recipes online that ask you to add a sachet of yeast, but you usually don’t need that much. Try using a third of this amount, or even less, as a 7g sachet of 500g flour contains 1.5 percent yeast.
The water temperature used in the recipe is another thing to consider. Some recipes call for hydrating the yeast with a bit of water at about 85F/30C before adding ice water to finish mixing, and this makes sure the yeast slows down before being placed in the refrigerator.
If your yeast is active, you might want to try the ice water step, even though you only need to perform it if you are using larger doses of yeast.
Is it Okay to Consume Uncooked Dough?
The quick response is no. You risk getting sick if you consume raw dough made with flour or eggs, and salmonella or E. coli germs could be present in raw dough.
Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria and other hazardous pathogens have not been killed or removed from raw flour. From the farm to your grocery shelf, flour can get contaminated at any point. When plain flour is harvested, processed, or shipped, as well as in your grocery cart or home, germs might enter the product.
Salmonella germs can be found in raw eggs; thus, they should never be eaten uncooked or undercooked.
All baked goods, including pieces of bread, cookies, cakes, and biscuits, should be properly cooked before consumption. This also applies to pre-made blends. Brownie mixes, cake mixes, and other prepackaged mixes may contain raw flour, and many ask for raw eggs.
These microorganisms that could cause illness are eliminated by baking the flour and frying the eggs.
Conclusion
Before you put the dough in the fridge, you need to know the signs of over-fermentation. The sourdough will smell bad, have a reduced dry texture, and have mold spots on its surface. Moreover, if the dough has gone wrong, you can’t eat it. In this article, we will tell you how to know whether your dough is terrible. You can also try several other methods to make it last longer in the fridge.
