Barb at King Arthur

September 3, 2021 at 11:30am

In reply to by sandy (not verified)

Hi Sandy, this can vary from one recipe to the next, but in general if the dough has had adequate time to ferment properly during the bulk ferment, then it works fine to shape the loaves and then put them directly in the refrigerator. I look for the dough to be rising well and noticeably airier in texture as a good sign that it's ready to shape and then refrigerate. In a pinch you could allow the dough to rise for an hour or two after shaping and before refrigeration if you feel like you jumped the gun when it came to the bulk ferment. Now that your dough has been refrigerated, you may find that adding a few hours at room temperature before baking may improve the rise, but you will lose some of the benefits in terms of ease of transferring and scoring that come from baking directly from the fridge. You're still likely to get a nice jump in the oven, even if you bake your loaves directly from the refrigerator, but the overall size of your loaves is likely to be smaller. 

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