Instead of freezing fresh dough, I tend to partially bake. Brake for about 20 minutes with steam, remove from oven, let cool. Freeze. When ready to have fresh bread: bake for about 20-25 minutes. No need to thaw beforehand.
@@JVSwailesBoudicca I'm doing the first 20 minutes (pre freezing) starting at 230°C (no air assist, but with a lot of steam) and turn it down to 210°C (which my oven usually still exceeds say the end of those 20 minutes). For the bake after freezing, I pre-heat to 200°C and bake for about 20 minutes (up to 25) with no steam.
My tips for frozen sourdough is to put in the fridge at least 4h before baking the best thing is approximately 1 day, the the dough will swell a bit more, in that way the dough will rise more before the crust is done so the bread won’t rise anymore.At home we have a lot of unformed breaddough in the freezer in portion size that we take out 1 day before me want to bake the bread. Usually we do always put out the dough from the fridge 1-4h before baking. Then we form the bread right before baking, but this is only for the non sourdough bread.
When I freeze dough I freeze it right after final shaping and then take it out to a refrigerator 18-24 hrs ahead of bake. Then I bake as usual in a preheated vessel. Almost exactly the same result as after overnight cold proof. Excellent experiment! Many thanks.
I did some experiments where I froze three different projects. 1st: froze bread after it fully baked and cooled down. 2nd froze bread after it baked for 10 minutes (until steaming phase was completed), and 3rd, froze bread after fermentation but before proofing. Results, all of them tasted fine and looked good in the end, but the freezing of the dough created the most work of the three as it had to thaw in the fridge, restart proofing, etc. My personal preference as a result was to par bake (2nd method) going forward as it seemed to produce the freshest tasting bread. My version (number 3) of your experiment turned out better than yours but I believe that was because mine thawed out fully before baking unlike yours. p.s., I did my experiments because I bake bread in my capacity as a food docent in a museum and I was trying to answer the question how could I prepare bread more quickly in the mornings for my visitors without having to get up at 3am to bake bread in time for the public to sample.
@@anjabrummer259 Doing this occasionally. Did this to solve a problem about not being rushed to bake bread at a certain time. It worked for all three cases. However, it was not the same amount of work for each case. Freezing the dough was the most work afterwards. Freezing the fully baked loaf was the least work and fastest. The partially baked loaf was also very little work, but required more attention to WHEN to stop the baking and then freeze later. Good news, all worked.
I divide my sourdough bread dough into 4 pieces and vaccuum seal each piece before freezing. I then thaw it on the counter for several hours and make a personal pizza crust with it. I also make pizza sauce and freeze it in ice cube trays and store in a zipper bag. When I pull the dough out, I also pull two cubes of sauce and let them thaw on the counter, also. Very simple and convenient.
I read some of the comments and I appreciate your experiment even more. We all know that left in the refrigerator it would work. Same with defrosting. But your experiment was right ON TARGET! I and I'm sure many others needed to see and know what would happen if it was left in the freezer, and next morning you realized and boom! You have great bread ready to bake for lunch with your friends! Some butter, some beer 🍺😋 and the party is on!!! Thank you again Hendrik. You are beyond amazing!! 👍❤
I honestly thought this would be a total bust. What a nice surprise! I'm wondering if brushing the outside with some beaten egg white would help the color and crispness.
The saw sound effects 👌. I tried and failed miserably: froze before bulk fermentation (that might have been the issue). Defrosted 12hrs in fridge, then 4hrs room temperature, then to preheated oven. Didn't rise at all. Do not do this, lol.
Here is my frozen bread story. Went on a much needed "after covid" vacation last week. Before leaving I had prepared 2 loaves of bread. I baked the first one the night before the trip, then it was late and I didn't have time to bake the second. So after it was shaped and ready to retard in the refrigerator, I decided that it would be best to put in the freezer, banetton and all, covered with a plastic bag like I always do. Came back, and had no idea what to do with it. I checked your channel Hendric, and sure enough I found this experiment. I first put the solid loaf on a board, and used my very sharp (german) bread knife to score it FROZEN. I put in my Römertopf baker, and soaked the top for 5-10 minutes. I spritzed the top with water and put the cold container with the frozen loaf on top of parchment paper inside. I put it all in the oven and turned the oven on to 450F. After 20 minutes, I opened and realized I wanted more oven spring. I spritzed the top of the bread with water, cover again and put back for another 15 minutes. Sure enough, when I opened again I had even more oven spring. (Or my eyes wanted to believe that) So out of the container into the oven for about another 20 minutes, for the color I wanted. I now have in front of me one of my better looking loafs of bread. Except the ear would need some surgical intervention. 😜 I would love to share the pictures that tell it all. Should I upload them to your Instagram? Thank you so much for your experiments. I am no longer afraid of storing some loafs in the freezer anytime I need to or have to like with the Jersey Shore vacation. *it was great!*
The content of the video is great as always. You always have useful and interesting bread experiments. As a native English speaker, I notice a very common mistake among non-natives, and I know you're always looking to improve so I thought I would weigh in: "How it looks like" is, I think, a combination of two phrases: "how it looks" and "what it looks like". _How_ doesn't need _like,_ but _what_ does. "Let's see how it looks like" will never be misunderstood, but it's incorrect and sounds a bit funny. ("Mal sehen, wie es so als aussieht" perhaps, though my German is nowhere near as good as your English)
Love your channel. I've learned so much here. Re: freezing....I've learned via The Easy Cajun channel that 2 hours of freezer time makes a big difference in ease of scoring.
Great video!! I've been putting my dough in the freezer when I think it's a little overfermented If I put it in the refrigerator at that point I know it will be beyond repair until it gets cold enough. So I have wondered what would happen if I forgot it in the freezer. I now know!!! The only thing I would change would be to spray it well with water before going in the oven. I loved how it worked perfectly well without preheating the Dutch oven. I will do this on purpose next time. It's a great idea and I thank you so much for it!! May your Gluten always rise to the occasion!! 👍😜❤
My sourdough so far has always failed in one way or another but back in the olden days when I was a successful home baker, we did that with honey wheat yeast bread. I would take it out in the morning to rise again and then bake it normally. I think your idea of the parchment is a good one. That loaf you made looked good.
Oh, I love this! My fave recepy yields two loaves, and the second loaf often gets a little bit dried out before we get around to eating it. Saving half the bake for when the first loaf is all eaten is a great option
I make 4 small loaves at a time and complete the first part of the bake (20 mins in a covered container @ 240 degC on my oven dial) by which time they are cooked through but the crust hasn't formed. I remove three of the loaves and leave them to cool down on a wire rack while I finish off the remaining loaf for use the same day. Once the others have cooled I freeze them individually in plastic bags. When I need my next loaf I get one out and defrost at room temperature for a few hours before finishing off in the same way as I would normally (for me 12 mins @ 210 DecC). I pre-heat the oven and cook directly on the oven shelf, no need to pre-heat a Dutch oven or anything like that. The bread comes out great each time, I can't tell the difference between the frozen and normal loaves. It's also more efficient as I'm only having to pre-heat the Dutch oven once at the higher temperature. The only problem this approach has given me is that I'm only baking once a week now and my starter isn't doing so well (it is sometimes taking over 24 hours to double in size after feeding it) I think I may need to start reactivating the starter a day or so before I need it!
I worked at Subway years ago we would thaw the loads of bread then pop them in a proofer for a while and then bake I was surprised to see your bread cooked so well being completely frozen
If my loaf was in a banneton I would have tried the following: 1. Some type defrost in the microwave with the loaf still in the banneton 2. Back in the freezer while the oven preheats 3. Score and bake It would be interesting to compare with a baked loaf, from the same dough, that hadn't been frozen.
Nice! I was sceptical to if you could do that. That bread is looking better than almost all sourdough bread i have ever made7 Today i baked a huge ryebread. Consisting of 2 predoughs and one maindough. 1 sourdoug predough and one poolish with 2% yeast. Those i prepared yesterday. At last a good bread, Very tasty too. I think it was german. Schwartzwald rye sourdough bread. The final bread weigh in at around 2800g!! So i cut it in half and froze one of the halfs. I love ryebread so this bread i am gonna do again
I have put the dough in a cold refrigerator at 1 or 2 C after the stretch and folds overnight. Later I bring out and do a bulk ferment then shape and bake.
I shape then freeze my doughs before their final proofing, that way they go through the last proof as they defrost. I defrost in the fridge overnight (in a clean, floured tea towel in a bowl) so it is then ready to score and bake first thing in the morning. The result is the same as fresh dough (for me at least). I'm able to bulk prepare my dough to freeze which means less days prepping!
Hi! Wow this method would work well for me I think. Such a coincidence that today I am already midway this method exactly and your comment here is atleast giving me hope ;) thank you!!
Interesting experiment, thanks :) by the way, I think your videos are way better without background music. It is a bit distracting from the important information you deliver. Just a thought :)
Bakery I worked for done this with croissants. Frozen after shaping but not yet proofed. I think idea can be applied to bread: Shape the loaf. Freeze. Later, let it defrost and proof as normal before baking. Freezing WILL kill some of the raising microorganisms.
Yep yep! I think you've got the best idea. The dough will thaw out but won't over proof because of the cold temperature. Next day, score and bake as normal.
@@flummyproduction2145 Another good experiment!! 😀 The only experimentation I’ve done is with pizza dough... cutting the proofing time, then freezing in single portions, and thawing out in refrigerator before baking with ok results. I have noticed that the longer the dough stays in the freezer it looses spring and can get a bit dense and tough after baking.
You should clean the rust off your Challenger bread pan, then season it. I use a small aluminum pan with some steel rods to hold the ice cub for steam. I put a thin coat of oil every so often to keep the seasoning good.
When you start cold anyway I would skip the cast iron bottom and instead take something that heats up faster, like a backing sheet and lots of steam ti thaw the outside faster andcompensate for some freezedrying that allways happens in the freezer. Like you showed here, not done inside but burnt outside is not a problem.
Maybe you could skip the scoring just by placing the seam side up (a very traditional Catalan bread is baked this way). So you wouldn’t need to take the bread out of the oven and maybe it would start opening up sooner.
What about leaving the dough overnight in the fridge for next day baking, letting it defrost slowly without activating the fermentation might give you more spring
I freeze pizza dough all the time and vacuum seal it. When I'm ready to make pizza the day before I take the dough out of the freezer and vacuum bag. I let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight in an oiled covered bowl then make as usual.
Long thawing time isn't necessary. I put my frozen vacuum sealed pizza dough into lukewarm water and it is thawed as I'm done cutting the vegetables and grading the cheese. The transfer of heat energy is way more efficient using water even at lower temperatures.
Well, I always wonder about hydration %. I know the freezer is a dehydrator. It seems like even if you vacuum seal some thing, the freezer still pulls water out of whatever it was that you froze. Since I don't have one, there are moisture meters that most woodworkers use, to make sure that air dried wood, most of the time, is dry enough to make some thing out of. No clue as to if that would work on bread or not.... I would have let the frozen loaf come up to room temp before putting in the oven. I would have expected it that there would be a big temperature differential, inside to outside, when cooking a frozen loaf. Seems like the amount of oven spring was good, but wonder if there is still active yeast after being frozen, or if all of the spring came from gas bubbles...
I would be curious to see how it goes if you were to put it into a preheated cast iron and score partway through the baking. I would also think tons of steam would be essential. An ice cube or squirts of water when you put in the dough and when you score it. I feel like that was the big thing missing here.
Do you think the mid-bake scoring can be done with success for a regular loaf? Either a first or second insection. At some point the crust formation will stop the dough from expanding. If some yeast is still alive, at that point, scoring the bread might give it a new boost...?
I love the chainsaw effect!! That is how i feel when trying to cut these things...they really resist the blade! I just started using my Mother’s electric knife to cut breads...even more chainsaw like!😁
what do you think might happen if you froze the pre-shaped dough in plastic or glass dish? Then remove it, allowing it to thaw then shape and final proof. Maybe a better final loaf. Here in the states you can buy frozen premixed bread dough, place it in a bread pan to thaw and rise then bake. It's still terrible bread in comparison but it is what it is, commercially prepared white dough. I know that when I remove my refrigerated sourdough starter from the fridge, allowing it to come to room temp, it becomes quite active even before I feed it.
Did you proof it in the fridge overnight after shaping first before putting it in the freeer.... or did you shape it then stick it straight into the freezer?
I just smashed the glass door of my oven with a sourdough already in the making. Fingers crossed it will work for me as good as your experiment, once the new oven arrives. :‘-)
I'm so sorry. What a bummer! Please read my latest post since I just baked my piece of frozen rock. It came out prefect, with just some minor changes from Henrik No.1.
The only benefit I can see you to freezing in advance is if there’s not enough room in the refrigerator but plenty of room in the freezer and you’re absolutely cannot plan to do it fresh in advance. Other than that, it just seems like extra work to put it in the freezer in the refrigerator yields a little bit better results. More predictable results.
Could you get a better surface texture and color if you sprayed it with water when you first put it in the Dutch oven frozen? Maybe that would remove the flower flavor and the ugly dry look
Awesome stuff, Hendrik! The suggestion on here about baking partially, and then freezing seems wise. For this particular test, I would think that if I froze unbaked dough, I'd take it out the night before I wanted to bake it, and chuck it in the fridge to slowly defrost. Will have to experiment!
I never froze it so much that I couldn't score it... I think you forgot to spritz water on the dough. In particular when your score. Oh and, the tips to remove the dough from the Benetton is to turn the banneton, and then tap a corner against the work surface (or in your case, the inside of the challengers dutch oven). PS : that one time I froze my dough too much I definitely had less oven spring (like you had on this video) but it was not so frozen that I could not score.
It takes like 30 minutes with steel woll. Ten rubbing oil on 2 min, and roast it in cold oven set to 200 celcius for 10 minutes, use some paper to spread the oil out again and remove exes oil, then put back in oven for 1 hour. Done. It wont stick as much, it wont continue to rust your gear. And I say gear because rust spreads to everything in a kitchen. 1hour 40 minutes at worst.
Instead of freezing fresh dough, I tend to partially bake. Brake for about 20 minutes with steam, remove from oven, let cool. Freeze. When ready to have fresh bread: bake for about 20-25 minutes. No need to thaw beforehand.
This is the best freezing method
🙏🏻 great idea Sven. Thanks 🙏🏻
I would try that but What temperature would you set your oven please.?
@@JVSwailesBoudicca I'm doing the first 20 minutes (pre freezing) starting at 230°C (no air assist, but with a lot of steam) and turn it down to 210°C (which my oven usually still exceeds say the end of those 20 minutes). For the bake after freezing, I pre-heat to 200°C and bake for about 20 minutes (up to 25) with no steam.
I have heard this is the best...I will have to try it
My tips for frozen sourdough is to put in the fridge at least 4h before baking the best thing is approximately 1 day, the the dough will swell a bit more, in that way the dough will rise more before the crust is done so the bread won’t rise anymore.At home we have a lot of unformed breaddough in the freezer in portion size that we take out 1 day before me want to bake the bread. Usually we do always put out the dough from the fridge 1-4h before baking. Then we form the bread right before baking, but this is only for the non sourdough bread.
At what point do you freeze them? Right after bulk?
@@camillagalang8770 I usually freeze them right after the bulk. :)
When I freeze dough I freeze it right after final shaping and then take it out to a refrigerator 18-24 hrs ahead of bake. Then I bake as usual in a preheated vessel. Almost exactly the same result as after overnight cold proof. Excellent experiment! Many thanks.
I did some experiments where I froze three different projects. 1st: froze bread after it fully baked and cooled down. 2nd froze bread after it baked for 10 minutes (until steaming phase was completed), and 3rd, froze bread after fermentation but before proofing. Results, all of them tasted fine and looked good in the end, but the freezing of the dough created the most work of the three as it had to thaw in the fridge, restart proofing, etc. My personal preference as a result was to par bake (2nd method) going forward as it seemed to produce the freshest tasting bread. My version (number 3) of your experiment turned out better than yours but I believe that was because mine thawed out fully before baking unlike yours. p.s., I did my experiments because I bake bread in my capacity as a food docent in a museum and I was trying to answer the question how could I prepare bread more quickly in the mornings for my visitors without having to get up at 3am to bake bread in time for the public to sample.
Thanks for sharing 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Good share. Thank you
Hi Peter, are you still doing this? The pre bake, freeze, refresh?
How is this working for you?
@@anjabrummer259 Doing this occasionally. Did this to solve a problem about not being rushed to bake bread at a certain time. It worked for all three cases. However, it was not the same amount of work for each case. Freezing the dough was the most work afterwards. Freezing the fully baked loaf was the least work and fastest. The partially baked loaf was also very little work, but required more attention to WHEN to stop the baking and then freeze later. Good news, all worked.
@@pkuchnicki ok thats great!
What indicators did you use to know when to stop the first bake?
The saw sound and the special effects were awesome. And experiment is pretty good too Thank you
I was surprised you didn't spritz with water, like you usually do. That might help with oven spring.
I divide my sourdough bread dough into 4 pieces and vaccuum seal each piece before freezing. I then thaw it on the counter for several hours and make a personal pizza crust with it. I also make pizza sauce and freeze it in ice cube trays and store in a zipper bag. When I pull the dough out, I also pull two cubes of sauce and let them thaw on the counter, also. Very simple and convenient.
I read some of the comments and I appreciate your experiment even more. We all know that left in the refrigerator it would work. Same with defrosting.
But your experiment was right ON TARGET! I and I'm sure many others needed to see and know what would happen if it was left in the freezer, and next morning you realized and boom! You have great bread ready to bake for lunch with your friends! Some butter, some beer 🍺😋 and the party is on!!!
Thank you again Hendrik. You are beyond amazing!! 👍❤
I honestly thought this would be a total bust. What a nice surprise! I'm wondering if brushing the outside with some beaten egg white would help the color and crispness.
The saw sound effects 👌.
I tried and failed miserably: froze before bulk fermentation (that might have been the issue). Defrosted 12hrs in fridge, then 4hrs room temperature, then to preheated oven. Didn't rise at all. Do not do this, lol.
Here is my frozen bread story.
Went on a much needed "after covid" vacation last week. Before leaving I had prepared 2 loaves of bread.
I baked the first one the night before the trip, then it was late and I didn't have time to bake the second. So after it was shaped and ready to retard in the refrigerator, I decided that it would be best to put in the freezer, banetton and all, covered with a plastic bag like I always do.
Came back, and had no idea what to do with it.
I checked your channel Hendric, and sure enough I found this experiment.
I first put the solid loaf on a board, and used my very sharp (german) bread knife to score it FROZEN.
I put in my Römertopf baker, and soaked the top for 5-10 minutes.
I spritzed the top with water and put the cold container with the frozen loaf on top of parchment paper inside.
I put it all in the oven and turned the oven on to 450F.
After 20 minutes, I opened and realized I wanted more oven spring. I spritzed the top of the bread with water, cover again and put back for another 15 minutes. Sure enough, when I opened again I had even more oven spring. (Or my eyes wanted to believe that)
So out of the container into the oven for about another 20 minutes, for the color I wanted.
I now have in front of me one of my better looking loafs of bread. Except the ear would need some surgical intervention. 😜
I would love to share the pictures that tell it all.
Should I upload them to your Instagram?
Thank you so much for your experiments.
I am no longer afraid of storing some loafs in the freezer anytime I need to or have to like with the Jersey Shore vacation. *it was great!*
The content of the video is great as always. You always have useful and interesting bread experiments.
As a native English speaker, I notice a very common mistake among non-natives, and I know you're always looking to improve so I thought I would weigh in:
"How it looks like" is, I think, a combination of two phrases: "how it looks" and "what it looks like".
_How_ doesn't need _like,_ but _what_ does. "Let's see how it looks like" will never be misunderstood, but it's incorrect and sounds a bit funny. ("Mal sehen, wie es so als aussieht" perhaps, though my German is nowhere near as good as your English)
Love your channel. I've learned so much here. Re: freezing....I've learned via The Easy Cajun channel that 2 hours of freezer time makes a big difference in ease of scoring.
Great video!! I've been putting my dough in the freezer when I think it's a little overfermented
If I put it in the refrigerator at that point I know it will be beyond repair until it gets cold enough. So I have wondered what would happen if I forgot it in the freezer. I now know!!! The only thing I would change would be to spray it well with water before going in the oven. I loved how it worked perfectly well without preheating the Dutch oven.
I will do this on purpose next time. It's a great idea and I thank you so much for it!! May your Gluten always rise to the occasion!! 👍😜❤
My sourdough so far has always failed in one way or another but back in the olden days when I was a successful home baker, we did that with honey wheat yeast bread. I would take it out in the morning to rise again and then bake it normally. I think your idea of the parchment is a good one. That loaf you made looked good.
Oh, I love this! My fave recepy yields two loaves, and the second loaf often gets a little bit dried out before we get around to eating it. Saving half the bake for when the first loaf is all eaten is a great option
That's a whole different way of spelling "recipe."
@@MissRnH lol I always get that wrong, english is not my native language
@@Naelinor same, same! All good! I just thought it was adorable! 😊
I make 4 small loaves at a time and complete the first part of the bake (20 mins in a covered container @ 240 degC on my oven dial) by which time they are cooked through but the crust hasn't formed. I remove three of the loaves and leave them to cool down on a wire rack while I finish off the remaining loaf for use the same day. Once the others have cooled I freeze them individually in plastic bags.
When I need my next loaf I get one out and defrost at room temperature for a few hours before finishing off in the same way as I would normally (for me 12 mins @ 210 DecC). I pre-heat the oven and cook directly on the oven shelf, no need to pre-heat a Dutch oven or anything like that.
The bread comes out great each time, I can't tell the difference between the frozen and normal loaves. It's also more efficient as I'm only having to pre-heat the Dutch oven once at the higher temperature.
The only problem this approach has given me is that I'm only baking once a week now and my starter isn't doing so well (it is sometimes taking over 24 hours to double in size after feeding it) I think I may need to start reactivating the starter a day or so before I need it!
I worked at Subway years ago we would thaw the loads of bread then pop them in a proofer for a while and then bake I was surprised to see your bread cooked so well being completely frozen
If my loaf was in a banneton I would have tried the following:
1. Some type defrost in the microwave with the loaf still in the banneton
2. Back in the freezer while the oven preheats
3. Score and bake
It would be interesting to compare with a baked loaf, from the same dough, that hadn't been frozen.
Well that was awesome and totally not what I expected. Thanks.
Nice! I was sceptical to if you could do that. That bread is looking better than almost all sourdough bread i have ever made7 Today i baked a huge ryebread. Consisting of 2 predoughs and one maindough. 1 sourdoug predough and one poolish with 2% yeast. Those i prepared yesterday. At last a good bread, Very tasty too. I think it was german. Schwartzwald rye sourdough bread. The final bread weigh in at around 2800g!! So i cut it in half and froze one of the halfs. I love ryebread so this bread i am gonna do again
The crumb surprised me, I was expecting it more dense. Awesome experiment, as always :D
Thanks! Same here!
I have put the dough in a cold refrigerator at 1 or 2 C after the stretch and folds overnight. Later I bring out and do a bulk ferment then shape and bake.
I shape then freeze my doughs before their final proofing, that way they go through the last proof as they defrost. I defrost in the fridge overnight (in a clean, floured tea towel in a bowl) so it is then ready to score and bake first thing in the morning. The result is the same as fresh dough (for me at least). I'm able to bulk prepare my dough to freeze which means less days prepping!
Hi! Wow this method would work well for me I think. Such a coincidence that today I am already midway this method exactly and your comment here is atleast giving me hope ;) thank you!!
It could explode... I'm glad that it didn't. I'm surprised that it came out so well! Good to know!
Love the sound effects...will need to do some form of this experiment
Thanks :-D
Interesting experiment, thanks :) by the way, I think your videos are way better without background music. It is a bit distracting from the important information you deliver. Just a thought :)
Totally agree 😊
But i do like the sound effects for cutting and crunching...😊
This is creative! Thank you for the timesaver series! I could imagine making batches of these for convenience! Hope to see more of such great tips!
I did exactly what you did, and it’s worked!
Thank you very much.
I freeze my baked sourdough breads a few hours after they have cooled down. No need to bake again.
Bakery I worked for done this with croissants. Frozen after shaping but not yet proofed. I think idea can be applied to bread: Shape the loaf. Freeze. Later, let it defrost and proof as normal before baking. Freezing WILL kill some of the raising microorganisms.
What if you put the frozen dough with the proofing basket in the refrigerator the night before to thaw out and bake it in the morning?
Yep yep! I think you've got the best idea. The dough will thaw out but won't over proof because of the cold temperature. Next day, score and bake as normal.
Great idea!
@laura trujillo Do you put the dough before or after the proofing test into the freezer?
@@flummyproduction2145 Another good experiment!! 😀 The only experimentation I’ve done is with pizza dough... cutting the proofing time, then freezing in single portions, and thawing out in refrigerator before baking with ok results. I have noticed that the longer the dough stays in the freezer it looses spring and can get a bit dense and tough after baking.
@@intouchwiththeheart okay, I will check it out next time, preparing two doughs and put them into the freezer, one before and one after proofing :D
You should clean the rust off your Challenger bread pan, then season it.
I use a small aluminum pan with some steel rods to hold the ice cub for steam. I put a thin coat of oil every so often to keep the seasoning good.
What oil do you use 🙏🏼
@@janetnarey7279 I have been using coconut oil. Almost any food oil will work.
When you start cold anyway I would skip the cast iron bottom and instead take something that heats up faster, like a backing sheet and lots of steam ti thaw the outside faster andcompensate for some freezedrying that allways happens in the freezer. Like you showed here, not done inside but burnt outside is not a problem.
What an unexpected result 👍😍
Maybe you could skip the scoring just by placing the seam side up (a very traditional Catalan bread is baked this way). So you wouldn’t need to take the bread out of the oven and maybe it would start opening up sooner.
the chainsaw and minecraft eating sounds are very much appreciated :)
I'd say let it thaw maybe?? Still better than 99% of most store bought breads. Great experiment!👏
What about leaving the dough overnight in the fridge for next day baking, letting it defrost slowly without activating the fermentation might give you more spring
Great idea. I will try that next!
Would spritzing with water or adding an ice cube for steam help with the outside.
It would also cook the outside faster, that's why I didn't want to do it hehe. I think I need to try a few more methods 🤣
I freeze pizza dough all the time and vacuum seal it. When I'm ready to make pizza the day before I take the dough out of the freezer and vacuum bag. I let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight in an oiled covered bowl then make as usual.
Long thawing time isn't necessary. I put my frozen vacuum sealed pizza dough into lukewarm water and it is thawed as I'm done cutting the vegetables and grading the cheese. The transfer of heat energy is way more efficient using water even at lower temperatures.
So this is a yet unformed shape while frozen. It’s frozen as a ball of dough & then shaped after thawing?
@@helenjohnson7583 yes just a dough ball.
@@helenjohnson7583 I shape the dough into a 2cm thick slab before freezing. In this shape it thaws quicker than as a ball.
I think I would let it unfreeze in the fridge for a complete night. Definitely something to try !
I think I'm going to try this!
Well, I always wonder about hydration %. I know the freezer is a dehydrator. It seems like even if you vacuum seal some thing, the freezer still pulls water out of whatever it was that you froze. Since I don't have one, there are moisture meters that most woodworkers use, to make sure that air dried wood, most of the time, is dry enough to make some thing out of. No clue as to if that would work on bread or not....
I would have let the frozen loaf come up to room temp before putting in the oven. I would have expected it that there would be a big temperature differential, inside to outside, when cooking a frozen loaf. Seems like the amount of oven spring was good, but wonder if there is still active yeast after being frozen, or if all of the spring came from gas bubbles...
Hmmm I'm also wondering about the yeast now
Editing is improving, love it. 😂💪🏼
Great! Thanks for the video 👍🏽
I would be curious to see how it goes if you were to put it into a preheated cast iron and score partway through the baking. I would also think tons of steam would be essential. An ice cube or squirts of water when you put in the dough and when you score it. I feel like that was the big thing missing here.
Do you think the mid-bake scoring can be done with success for a regular loaf? Either a first or second insection. At some point the crust formation will stop the dough from expanding. If some yeast is still alive, at that point, scoring the bread might give it a new boost...?
I thought exactly the same hehe. Plus it would make scoring a little easier. Scoring was so easy on this dough.
I would think that it would be better to thaw it overnight before baking.
The overnight thaw in the fridge could substitute for the final proof.
I would have thawed the dough first. Also I would try part baking then freezing . Anyway, good experiment and thank you.
Maybe next time you can thaw it in the refrigerator then bake it. It may rise more. At any rate, who cares how it looks, as long as it tastes good.
Interesting experiment. Did you freeze the dough right after you put it into the banneton or after the proofing was done (or mostly done)?
Mostly done, like you said :-)
@@the_bread_code thanks 😊
backing half and instead of put it in the fridge like before put it in the freezer? Than the ovenspring and crust should be nice, shouldn't it?
Yep. Great idea!
Fabulous!
I love the chainsaw effect!! That is how i feel when trying to cut these things...they really resist the blade! I just started using my Mother’s electric knife to cut breads...even more chainsaw like!😁
what do you think might happen if you froze the pre-shaped dough in plastic or glass dish? Then remove it, allowing it to thaw then shape and final proof. Maybe a better final loaf. Here in the states you can buy frozen premixed bread dough, place it in a bread pan to thaw and rise then bake. It's still terrible bread in comparison but it is what it is, commercially prepared white dough. I know that when I remove my refrigerated sourdough starter from the fridge, allowing it to come to room temp, it becomes quite active even before I feed it.
That's an interesting idea. Great idea and I need to test this. Thanks!
Lots of food for thought here. Thanks for conducting this experiment! (More data in.)
Did you proof it in the fridge overnight after shaping first before putting it in the freeer.... or did you shape it then stick it straight into the freezer?
I shaped it, waited till the finger poke test almost passed and then froze it :-)
yea, learning something new ! Thx !
Try thawing it out overnight at room temperature before the bake, please.
Maybe to try next : Defrost the dough, reshape it and let it proof. I'm curious if this gonna work. What do you think ?
Good idea definitely!
i would first slowly unfreeze it in the fridge. here you can experiment with pre freezing fermentation times
Maybe the flour would merge better if you let it ferment as usual before you freeze it. 🍞
Score it before freezing?
I just smashed the glass door of my oven with a sourdough already in the making. Fingers crossed it will work for me as good as your experiment, once the new oven arrives. :‘-)
I'm so sorry. What a bummer!
Please read my latest post since I just baked my piece of frozen rock. It came out prefect, with just some minor changes from Henrik No.1.
How about a partial thaw in the (dare I suggest) the microwave ?
I think that could work, yep.
The only benefit I can see you to freezing in advance is if there’s not enough room in the refrigerator but plenty of room in the freezer and you’re absolutely cannot plan to do it fresh in advance. Other than that, it just seems like extra work to put it in the freezer in the refrigerator yields a little bit better results. More predictable results.
The bread is so small i would eat it at one go tbh!
Was the flour still on the crust because you didn’t spray it?
I think it was just that it froze and didn't get the chance to merge with the rest of the dough :-)
Could you get a better surface texture and color if you sprayed it with water when you first put it in the Dutch oven frozen? Maybe that would remove the flower flavor and the ugly dry look
Yep. Good idea. I think that could have helped.
WOW that's something
What if you let the dough thaw in the fridge for a day, then score and bake as usual?
I think that's a good idea for an improvement!
The texture might be due to the cotton sleeve you used in the benneton. It froze with the imprint of the cotton
Did you proof it before freezing it?
Yep. Until the finger poke test passed. Then I froze it :-)
@@the_bread_code ok thanks
Could adding an ice cube help?
It would also heat up the surface faster. That's why I didn't do it in that case.
Do you have huge hands or is the bread only about as big as two Semmeln?
Both 🤣
Awesome stuff, Hendrik! The suggestion on here about baking partially, and then freezing seems wise. For this particular test, I would think that if I froze unbaked dough, I'd take it out the night before I wanted to bake it, and chuck it in the fridge to slowly defrost. Will have to experiment!
Maybe thawing the dough before baking it?
Yup. That could work, I think it's a great idea!
You have to defrost it prior to baking.
Spray it with water so it looks nicer and not floury
Could you try to let it thaw next time?
Will try next time. In the fridge over night, could work well :-)
How about par baking then freezing?
Yah that also works well.
Great idea!
nice i win try
I never froze it so much that I couldn't score it... I think you forgot to spritz water on the dough. In particular when your score. Oh and, the tips to remove the dough from the Benetton is to turn the banneton, and then tap a corner against the work surface (or in your case, the inside of the challengers dutch oven).
PS : that one time I froze my dough too much I definitely had less oven spring (like you had on this video) but it was not so frozen that I could not score.
Remove the rust from your equipment and give it a new coating. It is Ez. Don't Cook in rusty gear...
It takes like 30 minutes with steel woll. Ten rubbing oil on 2 min, and roast it in cold oven set to 200 celcius for 10 minutes, use some paper to spread the oil out again and remove exes oil, then put back in oven for 1 hour. Done. It wont stick as much, it wont continue to rust your gear. And I say gear because rust spreads to everything in a kitchen. 1hour 40 minutes at worst.
Yeah just like pizza balls you should defrost the dough first
Personally I would have thawed it out first
Looks like a Zobiebread.....👽
Far better to bake normally then freeze in a ziplock...