Question for anyone who has made bread with a overnight rise in the fridge...

S

sandi-in-hawaii

Well-known member
I've read that breads that are given a long, slow rising time in the fridge overnight develop better flavor, and give you the convenience of making the bread the night before, and just baking it in the morning.

I've also read recipes for overnight cinnamon rolls, where you take the bread out of the fridge, let it sit for 30 minutes, then pop it into the oven and bake.

Has anyone actually done this??!

I tried it last night. The dough had one rise in the bread machine, then I shaped it into my cinnamon rolls, put it in the pan, and stuck it in the fridge.

When I took them out this morning at 5:15 AM, it hadn't rose a single bit since I put it in the night before. And then, it took even longer for the second rise, since the dough and the pan were now COLD!

I boiled some water in the microwave, and left the steaming cup in there, along with my bread pan. I reheated that cup of water a couple of times (sans the pan, of course!) to create a warm, moist environment for the bread to rise, but it still wasn't fully proofed, after an hour and a half!

At that point, I had to bake it, otherwise I woulda never made it to work on time.

So, do you have to let it sit for 2 hours or more, after the overnight refrigeration?

Would it be okay to half bake it the night before, then finish the baking in the morning?

 
Sandi, perhaps your fridge is too cold............

I have let dough rest in the refrigerator many times without a problem. However, I hadn't shaped the dough......just put it into a ziplock bag and shaped it once warmed up. The dough has to warm up before using it and that can take as much as 2 hours depending upon the amount.

Sorry, I don't know about half baking the night before.

 
Sandi, I've done it with mixed success. I think it has to start rising at room temp.,

then put in the fridge where it slows way down. Really cold dough won't rise, as you've found out.

But in gerenal, a slow rise is better for flavor. Just letting it rise in at around 70*, as opposed to a warming oven or other the top ot the fridge which some people do to get a quick rise, makes a difference.

 
My favoite roll/cinnamon roll recipe starts with scalded milk. . .

which is then used to melt butter (cooling the milk) and then is allowed to cool to comfortably warm to the fingers. All other ingredients are then mixed into the liquid and then all is covered and put in the fridge. With the warm liquid the dough has a good start on rising and does rise in the fridge, fast at first then more slowly as the dough cools.

Start out with warm liquids, knead (either by hand, mixer or bread machine) then put into the fridge BEFORE the dough cools down too much, while it is still warm. This essentially starts the dough rising at room temperature while in the refrigerator.

For other non or not-so-sweet doughs, I will actually make the dough using cool or cold water and find the coolest place in the house to let it rise, or if worse comes to worse, I cover the dough bowl with a wet towel in the heat of the summer (we don't use our air conditoning much).

The fridge, if it is as cold as most fridges are is the best place for a sweet dough to rise; I find I get a much better dough and it has a nicer flavor AND it is very easy to handle. Cool, cool room temp is the best place for unsweetened doughs like french and such. More moderately sweetened dough, like alot of whole wheat and "classic" slightly sweetened home-style breads can be risen in the fridge, but start for sure with warm water; I feel these breads are just more better off in a cool room temperature using the towel method of cooling, if necessary. For that matter, try french and other unsweetened dough in the fridge for more contol also, but no matter what the dough,start out with warm liquid if you want to use a fridge rise of any length.

The above are observations from my experience. Of course your mileage may vary!

--And as for bringing the dough out of the fridge cold and letting it set for 30 min and then baking, well that might work for already shaped small rolls, not for a whole loaf of bread. . .

 
Total agreement here- Sandi, next time put the dough in the fridge BEFORE the first rise

just after you mixed it all up and it is still warm. Don't let it go through the first rise then punch down. I have had mixed results with the refrigeration method over the years but found I had the best luck using rapid rise yeast (bread machine yeast is what it is packaged as.) Rapid rise yeast seems to be able to take more "abuse" (hotter temps, cooler temps.)

30 minutes is not long enough for the dough to rise once taken out of the fridge- even with rapid rise unless you have the dough portioned into small pieces.

To answer the other question no, I would not try to partially bake and finish baking in the morning. You are better off baking the rolls, freezing them then re-warming in the morning or even baking at night and refrigerating then re-warming the next morning. The rolls will be fine and everyone will still be worshipping you for making homemade cinnamon rolls!

 
..and about your cookie-making experience- may I offer a thought or three?

Three things came to mind when I read your chocolate chip cookie-making problems-

1. When I make cookies I always put cold butter in the mix, not room-temp butter. It makes a huge difference. I don't believe freezing the butter changes the butter, nor does letting it come to room temp then re-chilling it. Using soft butter in the cookie dough will make the cookies turn out differently than they should.

2. Check the butter you are using- is it a superior quality butter or just the cheapest on the market? The cheap ones have water in them.

3. Usually it is not a problem with cookies to double the batch but maybe because of the large amount of butter you should try a single batch instead of doubling to see if you can make it work for you.

I'll try the recipe to see if it is a humidity in Hawaii problem:)

 
This is an interesting problem. I agree with Cathy on the cold butter and also salted butter will

tend to have more water in it. N'est-ce pas?

 
I am absolutely lacking in accuracy when I make breads. I've not had such

a problem, even then. I've never had a problem with rising overnight. I've also refrigerated after the first rise, in fact, that is usually how I do it. Is your yeast okay?

 
Thanks guys! So, is the overnight rise best for the first rising? ...

Stick the warm dough in the fridge to rise slowly for the first rise, before it cools down.

Then in the morning, you shape the cold dough into whatever shape you want (rolls, loaves, etc.), and let it sit out for the second rise?

The yeast is good, because on the previous batch, I didn't refrigerate the dough, and it rose fine. (I made five batches in the last week. Trying to perfect it smileys/smile.gif

Sounds like I'll still have to wake up two hours early, if I want to bake them in the morning.

I think I like the idea of baking the night before, then reheating the next morning better smileys/smile.gif

And yes, I do believe that reheated, warm, HOMEMADE cinnamon rolls still qualifies you for adoration from co-workers smileys/smile.gif

I did send one batch of cold, rolled up cinnamon rolls with my hubby to work. (They have an oven in the employee lunchroom.) He let it rise in the lunchroom, then baked it. He said that when it was baking, the whole office smelled just like Cinnabon, and all the customers commented on how good it smelled!

Doncha just LOOVE cinnamon?

 
Cathy and Marg, about the cookie thing...

I always use the Costco salted butter, and it is the cheapest. But the greasy thing only happens once in a great while, not always.

Since it's their Kirkland brand, you don't really know who the producer is - perhaps it changes, and the quality is not consistent? Gotta ponder that.

I've also considered buying the unsalted butter, but Costco sells that in solid one-pound blocks, rather than the four individually wrapped sticks. May have to sacrifice the convenience if the quality suffers....

And I do usually use fairly cold butter (I let it sit out for about 20 minutes or so, so it's not rock hard), but this recipe called for melted butter.

I haven't made any other cookies with this batch of butter (since I've been making so many cinnamon rolls!!), but will try the recipe again, with the next batch of butter.

Thanks for your ideas! We'll get to the bottom of this yet!

 
Yup. Warm bread baking AND cinnamon! What could be better. Those airport kiosks have

got me adding a lot more cinnamon than I used to. I think there's still room for more.

Good luck.

And yes, those quartered pounds sure make life easier in the kitchen. Just curious...how much is butter at Costco?

 
Sandy, not Cathy or Marge but I just had to make a comment about Costco's

salted butter. I buy it and keep it in the freezer to make cookies. I made over 300 cookies last week for my son's baseball team and the cookies came out wonderful (Neiman Marcus' $250 recipe). I also don't bring the butter to room temperature, but cut in in slices and mix with the sugars. My cookies coming out flat was a huge source of frustration for me a couple of years ago, and I thought it may be because of the humidity here in Houston. I even asked for help in Epi's swap, but noone mentioned cold butter. I finally saw it used this way in one of Food tv's segments. My cookes come out beautifully now. (just my 2 cents worth)

 
Butter at Costco comes in four 1-lb boxes cello'd together, and is around $9, I think..

I started buying butter there, when the prices of butter in the store started skyrocketing.

At that time, it was a just about $2 per pound. However, the bad thing about costco, is that you get used to buying certain products there, and then you never check the prices anymore - you just throw it into your cart!

And then you wonder how the stuff in that cart got to be over $100!

 
LOL Sandi - Hubby and I always called Costco "The $100 Store" and then

we had kids! Before we knew it Costco became "The $200 Store" !!!!

 
Maybe this one-rise recipe would work better >>

Just put in fridge after shaping and see what happens in the morning? I think I'll try it this weekend.

ONE-RISE CINNAMON ROLLS
Category: Bread or Breakfast
Number of Servings: 20
Ingredients:
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
1 package regular active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105° F to 110° F)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 large egg
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour, divided

Filling:
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon(I use 2)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Cooking Directions:
In a 9x13 inch baking pan, combine whipping cream, brown sugar, and walnuts. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in sugar, salt, softened butter, egg and 1 1/2 cups of the flour. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed or until smooth and slightly elastic. Stir in enough of remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Let dough rest 5 minutes.

To make filling, combine sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll or pat dough into a 15x9 inch rectangle. Spread with 2 tablespoons melted butter, leaving a 1/2 inch border all around. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Starting with one long end, roll up tightly in jelly roll fashion. Pinch tightly to close. Cut into 20 equal slices; place slightly apart into prepared baking pan. Cover and let rise 60 minutes or until almost doubled in size. Uncover rolls; bake at 375° F for 30 to 35 minutes or until browned. Let cool 5 minutes. Turn the rolls right side up and place onto a rack. Let cool 15 minutes before serving.
Recipe © 2005 Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Inc.

 
Those were my original thoughts - low quality butter/high water content, & perhaps high humidity.

see post 1297.

 
Sometimes the butter has not been kept carefully cold. . .

Butter that has come to too warm a temp then re-cooled can cause the butter to be more "greasy", or oily. The actual physical properties of how the butter is hanging together have changed. The butter may look the same but the softer, more oily components have disengaged from the firmer stuff (If I remember correctly).

also, if you butter is too warm when creamy the cookies will be too greasy, even if you have refrigerated the completed dough to firm it up.

If you need butter to cream, you either have to cut it inot small pieces and then cream it when it is just starting to soften OR you can put the cold butter into a plastic bag and whack it with a rolling pin till it softens up just enought to start creaming (this tip I read from Julia Child somewhere.

I get my butter from a company in Southern California called Smart and Final and currently a big 3lb box of butter is under 5 bucks and cooks up just fine in cookies as long as I don't let it get too soft before creaming. The cheapest store brand butter is currently about $2.50/lb on sale around here.

 
I've had mixed success with overnight rise cinnamon rolls. I did some once

with pumpkin in the dough - they never did rise.

I usually do sticky buns for Christmas morning - they are single rise, and I prep them and put in the oven the night before. I usually have them at room temp at least 2 hours (usually closer to 3) before baking, and have never had a problem with them.

And you're right - no one will complain about being treated to freshly baked (or homemade warm) cinnamon rolls!

 
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