[Sca-cooks] question about breads

[Terry Decker]

Actually, the yeast goes dormant when you freeze it.  If you leave it frozen 
for any extensive period, you kill some of the yeast, which is why doubling 
the yeast may be useful.  The amount of yeast you need to use is dependent 
upon the brand and type (dry active, cake, etc), so experimentation is 
useful.

If you store the dough in a self-defrosting freezer, the temperature rises 
above freezing reactivating the yeast in the outer layer.  This makes for 
lousy bread.

It takes about four hours for the loaf to thaw and rise.

Bear


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