I am invited to a friends house for dinner.
I am going early to help cook. He does not have enough oven space to bake bread that day.
My question is can I make the dough the night before let it rise punch it down than store it in the refrigerator.
Would it be ok to bake it in the morning before I go to his house.

Thanks

Could be wrong, but I doubt that you'd get a good second rise out of it that way.

I'd just bake it so that it's done shortly before I was heading over.

I have done this many times when I didn't have enough time to do the whole baking job in one stretch, or to mix once/bake many over a period of time. Refrigeration slows rather than stops rising. Let the dough return to room temperature, it should (at least) double in size. Then punch down and pick up in the recipe after the first rise/punch down step. Many doughs gain flavor with a refrigeration period/multiple rises.

Long periods (a week or more) of refrigeration may encourage bacterial contamination. If you're not going to be able to finish the loaf in a week, stick the dough in the freezer instead. I have successfully baked doughs that had been frozen for two years or more with small loss of quality.

This is absolutely a valid process. I often slow proof loaves in the fridge. They rise slower, but develop a lot more flavor in the process. Get to the point of shaping your loaves and panning them, then cover and stick in the fridge.

Just take them out early enough in the morning so they can warm up before you bake them. Baked loaves should have an internal temp of about 200 degrees using an instant read thermometer.

Or just bake it the evening before. It's not going to go stale overnight.

The place I worked at used to roll and portion out all the dough in sealed racks the night before to rise in the walk-in fridge overnight. Slow proofing in the fridge is definitely a thing.

No problem, refrigeration of dough is in many recipes, especially the no knead recipes:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/rec...bread-recipe-1973444

http://www.seriouseats.com/rec...ad-bread-recipe.html


Bread recipes in the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day series make use of refrigerating dough for days to have a ready supply.

I overnight rise all of my bread. And I make bread two to three times a week.

You can also do less kneading of the bread. I just do 4 stretch and folds a la Peter Reinhart.

The refrigerated rise will slow down the process - which actually lends itself to better flavor. You might find that your bread actually tastes a little better.

You need a slow fermenting/slow rising type bread like a rye if you are going to let it go that long.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
You need a slow fermenting/slow rising type bread like a rye if you are going to let it go that long.

I don't mean to be argumentative but I don't find that to be true. I make white bread with an overnight rise all the time. Flour,salt, yeast, and water.

Thanks everyone.
I am making pretzel bread and was not sure if I could make it one day than bake the next day.
I will make dough on Friday night and bake Saturday morning.

When I make pizza, or French bread I always make my dough the night before, I've found better results using active dry yeast than instant yeast, compressed would be the best if you can find some.

As long as the temp doesn't go down to freezing you're fine. 40 degree is a perfect temp for retarding dough.