Rising bread dough in refrigerator over night allows dough time to mature and have a better flavor. Texture will be finer also.

Mix dough in the evening/night, store in jar 3 times size of dough with lid slightly ajar (keeps jar from exploding from fermenting yeast gasses and dough expansion). May use large glass mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick vegetable spray.

Next morning remove dough from frig. allow to come to room temperature (about 2 hrs.), form into pan or free form and allow to rise again at room temperature. Bake until internal temperature is 200 F. on an instant read therometer.

Marie

-- Marie (prettyhollow@yahoo.com), February 08, 2002

Answers

Really? This works? I have been trying various ways to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast without getting up at dawn for two risings. Maybe this will work. I thought, though that you needed warmth for the yeast to work. I've tried rising overnight in the microwave but the dough gets sour tasting.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), February 15, 2002.

I have done this before with dinner rolls for Thanksgiving Day and other times when I wanted more time the next day. I have just put it in the fridge in the oiled bowl that I was using to let it raise in and covered with plastic wrap w/o the spray and it worked just great. It does take a couple of hours to warm up and then to be formed and allowed to raise, but that has been no problem because of the time saved in making/cleaning up. I have a friend who does the same thing with cinnamon rolls. I suppose if you put it by a woodstove or in a warm oven it would warm the dough up sooner, if you needed it earlier. You do need to keep it covered in the fridge because the top will dry out.

-- Marie in Central WA (Mamafila@aol.com), February 15, 2002.