How can I freeze bread dough?
I would like to be able to freeze unbaked bread dough, so that at some later time I (or someone I'm giving it to) could thaw it out and then bake it. (Fresh-baked bread is nicer than thawed already-baked bread.) If I'm going to do this, when in the process should I do it, and are there any special considerations for packaging it?
My usual baking process is:
- Make the dough at night and let it bulk-ferment overnight.
- In the morning, the dough will have doubled in size. Shape it into loaves.
- Let rise a few hours until it (roughly) doubles again.
- Bake.
Is it better to freeze the dough before or after that final rise? Would freezing kill the yeast, and so it would not rise after thawing, and therefore I should do it right before #4? Or would it try to rise while thawing, and so I should freeze it before the final rise (after #2)?
I've bought frozen bread dough that was oven-ready after thawing, and also frozen bread dough that I had to let thaw and then rise. Neither of these were recent and both were commercial products, so there were probably other ingredients involved beyond those of the home baker.
I can science this when I next bake, and if so I can report back. But I was hoping to do this next time I bake, so if I can find an answer before doing my own research, that'd be better.
Finally, is wrapping the dough in parchment paper and then putting that in (freezer-grade) zipper bags the right packaging? Or is there a better way to ready dough for the freezer? I'm thinking of parchment paper because it's what the bread would then be baked on, and I worry that the dough would stick to the plastic bag. I do not have a vacuum sealer.
1 answer
The best results depend on:
-
freezing after the first rise and shaping, but before proofing
-
in a form that you can store easily
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with minimal trapped air
So: knead your dough and let it rise to your usual standard; punch it down, then put it into a greased loaf pan (even if you aren't planning on ending up with loafs). Freeze until solid -- overnight should do. Remove it from the pan, and store the no-longer-sticky frozen rectangular lump of dough in airproof packaging. A freezer-rated zip bag is usually a good idea.
When you want fresh bread, remove it from the freezer and the bag. If you're going to bake it in a loaf pan, put it in one now. Defrost in the refrigerator, then let it proof again before baking.
Storage time will depend on the airproofing and temperature, but a month is a safe bet.
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