SC - Freezing Bread Dough

[Lorix]

Suzanne Powell wrote:

> Greetings!
>
> I'll be attending Gulf Wars again this year and, as in past years, I'll be
> baking bread onsite to go with each of our meals.  In the past, I've done
> all the preparation onsite.  Kneading the bread takes up a good part of my
> class time / shopping time and has caused some concern over whether our
> tables were sturdy enough to handle such pressure.  To try and circumvent
> these problems, I was considering prepping the dough (mixing, kneading,
> first rise) and then freezing it and taking the frozen bread dough to the
> event.
>
> I know they sell frozen bread dough at the store, but I can't seem to find
> any guidelines in my cookbooks about how to do this -- what stage in the
> prepping process I can safely freeze the dough, whether I might need to add
> any extra yeast (in case some is killed during the freezing process), how
> long it will take to thaw...
>
> Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.  I'll even offer some fresh
> baked bread if you want to come by at dinner time.
>
> Lady Suzanne de la Ferte'
> Stargate, Ansteorra

M'lady,
I asked this question on the list last year & received some very informative
advice.  I happen to have an electronic breadmaker (as opposed to my spouse who
can sometimes be coerced ;-).

What I ended up doing was putting in a normal mix (ie no more yeast than I would
normally use) & letting the breadmaker make up a number of loaves each night
over a couple of weeks.  I wrapped each dough in alfoil (per a suggestion given
me from the list ;-) & put it into the freezer after the full mixing & rising
cycle had been performed.  The night before the feast I took all the doughs out
of the freezer & left them in the fridge to defrost.  Next morning (most were
defrosted), I simply placed half of the loaves into my oven on a greased tray
(ie no further kneading done) & the other half under cover also on trays to
await baking.  Both lots rose an equal amount over the full day.

My oven can be programmed & I happen to live near the feast site.  The oven was
probably slightly warmed as it was a warm day & the loaves rose nicely.  Two
hours before the feast was due to start my oven started cooking.  My husband
returned to get showered after the tourney & took first batch of 8 loaves out
when he arrived & wrapped them in towels.  Then, the 2nd batch went in & 40
minutes later (post shower ;-) were on the way to site also wrapped in towels.

The feasters pounced on the hot freshly baked loaves ;-)
Hope this helps,
Lorix