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Q&A 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 alread...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by dsr‭

Question bread freezing
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Monica Cellio‭ · 2021-12-13T01:56:15Z (over 2 years ago)
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:

1. Make the dough at night and let it bulk-ferment overnight.
2. In the morning, the dough will have doubled in size.  Shape it into loaves. 
3. Let rise a few hours until it (roughly) doubles again.
3. 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.