Freezing Bread Dough

[themartianchick]

After making a loaf of white bread from the Mormon cookbook (that I received for Spring Fling- thanks Pauline!) and the cinnamon rolls (from the Angel Biscuit recipe) , I started thinking about convenience foods. I would love to be able to freeze bread dough, biscuit dough, etc and have them ready to just thaw and pop in the oven. Without using all of the chemical preservatives that companies like Pillsbury use, is it possible to do this? Can any recipe be adapted to do this or would it have to be for only "certain" recipes. I think I remember freezing pizza dough as a kid...

 

If I can do this, then I would use my bread machine to make a lot of dough on my day off and then fresh bread on a busy day would be do-able. ( I could just use the timer on my bread machine tomake fresh bread, but it comes out in such funny shapes! The loaf is EXTRA tall and is weird for making sandwiches.

[Shoshana]

I think most bread doughs would freeze well.

 

I regularly freeze challah and pizza doughs.

 

I also mix up biscuits, roll them and cut them and freeze them unbaked. I just take out what I need and bake frozen.

[Christy]

Hey, there's a thought! I always thought it would make the yeast inactive if it were frozen.

But if it survives, it'd be very convenient to make a humongous batch of dough and freeze portions.

Would it be best thawed taking it out of the freezer into the fridge the night before and then in the morning roomtemperature? Seeing possibilities here.

[themartianchick]

Hey, there's a thought! I always thought it would make the yeast inactive if it were frozen.

But if it survives, it'd be very convenient to make a humongous batch of dough and freeze portions.

Would it be best thawed taking it out of the freezer into the fridge the night before and then in the morning roomtemperature? Seeing possibilities here.

 

That was pretty much my thought process, Christy! I figure that I could have several loaves, rolls, biscuits, etc...in the freezer and then be able to pop them into the oven for the evening meal. I rarely have the time to bake bread on a regular basis. I usually only bake one loaf at a time, because it doesn't stay as fresh without all of those nasty preservatives.

 

This way, I could use the breadmaker one day per month and make all of the dough that I need. I'd just keep loading the bread machine with more ingredients to make each batch. I'd still make all of the angel biscuits by hand. I could make hamburger buns, dinner rolls, etc... with the machine made bread dough and just freeze them. I think that I will try this tomorrow. I have the day off and we might get a snow storm so I won't be able to do much outside, anyway.

[Christy]

Oh nice one Martian. Looking forward to hear your results.

Sorry about the snowstorm coming your way. We're.... having clouds and rain now but tomorrow it'd be 72F and sunny.

Will be thinking of you while you are making your dough.

[Mother]

I have frozen bread dough of all kinds for years. Yeast can be frozen to keep it for years as well.

 

Because of my health I now use a bread maker but in the past I found that making the dough, one loaf at a time in the bread maker, was much too time consuming and it was a lot faster to make up a huge batch of dough by hand to freeze.

 

I make the dough up and allow it to raise at least once. (you can skip this rising if you are in a hurry but I like the texture of the finished product better with it) Then I punch it down, form it into loaves or buns or ? and wrap it securely in plastic wrap and freeze. I have vacuum sealed it as well. My preferred method is to freeze it (securely covered) in the pan I will be baking it in, removing the dough after it is frozen and then seal it and replace it in the freezer. That way it is preformed, though it is also an easy matter to form the dough after it has been thawed as well.

 

As Christy has suggested, I take the dough out the day before I want to bake it and put it in the refrigerator to thaw. I then set it in a warm place to rise before baking. Often times the dough will already have risen in the refrigerator. Then I just bake as usual. The dough will rise fine without the refrigerator step but will take quite a time to thaw before rising.

 

I freeze sweet rolls, cinnamon rolls, pizza crusts, artisan loaves, and a lot more. I try not to leave the dough more than six months in the freezer unless vacuum sealed, not because it doesn’t rise but because it seems to loose quality, sometimes drying around the edges.

 

Now, that said, Here is another method. It is almost as convenient to make up a ‘sponge’ the night before as they did in the past, let it set over night, even in the refrigerator, and finish it when you are ready to bake it the following day. I like to make up a soft dough, let it ‘work’ a short time, sometimes an hour but often only fifteen minutes, before covering it and setting it in the refrigerator until the next day. I add flour and knead it right in the bowl. I then form it into the shape I want before allowing it to raise in a warm spot. I do have the bowl to clean up each time but I like the finished product.

 

Hope this helps some.

[themartianchick]

Whoo-hoo!! Thank you, Mother, for the directions!! I will definitely try your method, but I really should use the bread machine to save my hands. It can handle enough dough to make three loaves, though you can only bake two sizes of bread loaves in the pan... It takes about an hour and a half to make the dough, so it allows me to do other things.

 

I have a couple of issues with my hands...chillblains and a touch of carpal tunnel. I spend a lot of time typing and (from time to time) I play the piano, so my hands have been taking abuse since the age of 5. My job requires a lot of typing for grantwriting, business plan writing, research, etc... and I tend to baby my hands to ensure that I am able to earn a living. Of course, we won't mention the amount of time that I spend typing comments on internet forums, right?

 

If the world were to go completely awry and there was no power, I'd probably be making no-knead bread recipes or would train one of the kids to knead bread.

[dogmom4]

Bump!

[lumabean]