[Sca-cooks] question about breads

[rbbtslyr]

Id did a bit of research in my bread baking books. If I were to freeze the dough after consulting my cook books, I would cut back on the yeast a bit if I froze the dough. The bread yeast is brewers yeast and specifically a lager yeast it will once it wakes up in the kneading, continue to work, although much slower in a freezer, happily but slowly converting starches and sugars that it can digest into CO2, otherwise the changes that should occur are, a finer crumb to the loaf, a slight change in the crust, it might be a bit thinner and a much greater oven spring to the overall loaf due to the extra CO2, also if left to long after comming to size at room temp a collaspe of the top of the bread. I would be sure to add an extra score or two, before baking to allow excess gas and water vapor out to prevent sogginess, also if kept in the freezer for more than a few days.

Kirk 

Meddle not in the Affairs of Dragons, for thou art Chrunchy and Taste Good with Catsup or BBQ Sauce

Liberty Hill, SC Elevation 571 ft  

Liberty Hill, SC (Kershaw)
Longitude: 80° 48' 7" W (-80.8019°)
Latitude: 34° 28' 41" N (34.4781°)
Grid: EM94 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Maggie MacDonald 
  To: Cooks within the SCA 
  Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 1:42 PM
  Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] question about breads


  At 10:17 AM 6/1/2005,Alexa said something like:
  >  In a few modern cookbooks I have read the dough being
  >frozen prior to rising, then when needed, bring dough
  >out of the freezer, cover and let thaw and rise, then
  >bake.  Has anyone tried this?  With everything else I
  >will be doing the day or 2 before, I think it would be
  >easier to thaw in stages and bake, then to have to
  >keep stopping in the middle of chopping veggies, ect
  >to mix dough,etc.

  This was the method I used to do the feast for Calafian Anniversary last 
  November. It worked out really well.  The only flaw I had was that instead 
  of having a flatter hearth bread, they were very very happy breads so they 
  ended up being huge round puffy loaves.  The populace was gifted with the 
  scent of hot baking bread as they walked into the feast hall, so that also 
  helped.

  >I have also heard of completeing the process and then
  >freezing the baked bread then thawing to serve.  My
  >only experience w/ this was w/ bread bowls that we
  >made for stews.  At that point, you want it kind of
  >day old/hard or you end up w/ mush. I don't want hard
  >bread for feast.
  >
  >Ideas??
  >
  >Alexa

  I've also baked up a bazillion breads in advance and then thawed for use 
  later.  At May Potrero war I made up about 100 fist sized stuffed bread 
  pockets and froze them 5 days before war, transported them frozen, then let 
  them thaw over the weekend.  They turned out quite nice!!  I didn't notice 
  any issues with the bread crust, but at that point I really wasn't too 
  fussy about quality (I was still kinda wigging over making sure that 
  everybody was _fed_).

  Regards, and good luck!!
  Maggie MacD. 

  _______________________________________________
  Sca-cooks mailing list
  Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
  http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks


  -- 
  No virus found in this incoming message.
  Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
  Version: 7.0.322 / Virus Database: 267.4.0 - Release Date: 6/1/2005
-------------- next part --------------
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.322 / Virus Database: 267.4.0 - Release Date: 6/1/2005