Event bread (was SC - Flours)

[Brett and Karen Williams]

I get the digest, so I'm always lagging behind.

> At 5:02 PM -0500 2/19/98, Gedney, Jeff wrote:
> >
> >Can I store the dough in "Pickle Buckets" (actually filling buckets from
> >the local donut place) without the plastic affecting flavor? I assume
> >that the leaving of the dough overnight will "sour" the dough, This may
> >not be bad, but how will that affect a sweet dough?
> >
> >Brandu
> >
> I've never tried storing bread dough in plastic, so I don't know.  Try it
> out with a small quantity in advance.  I've never found leaving it
> overnight sours it particularly, as long as the dough is in a cool place so
> that it doesn't over-rise: yeast is a lot less active at cool temperatures
> than at warm.
> 
> Elizabeth/Betty Cook

Yeast likes 85 degrees best.

Actually, letting bread dough rise in clean, non-odor contaminaed
food-grade plastic is a fairly good way to ensure that no outside
flavors percolate bread dough. The King Arthur Flour mob (Sands &
Taylor) sell plastic buckets for just that purpose. I keep all my
flours, cereals and grains in plastic bucket containers bought at Smart
& Final (a local discount chain) to lessen the possibility of that Evil
Little Brown Moth indigenous to southern California and weevils. I
haven't had any critters in my kitchen in over ten years... and I think
that's a Good Thing. I'd use a ceramic bowl with a linen cloth over the
top for period bread rising, if I were baking at an event...but that
situation hasn't, er, risen yet.

Incidentally, the way to keep dry ingredients from becoming bug infested
is fairly simple. 24 hours in the freezer, immediately upon purchase.
And never, ever store bread, cereals or grain products in the 'fridge--
the low temperature makes the starches in the bread accelerate the
stale-ing process. Better to freeze bread if you must, or keep it in a
bread box at room temperature.

ciorstan
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