Can I freeze sourdough bread dough before it is baked? I typically make sourdough rye bread. If the dough can be frozen prior to baking, would there need to be any changes made to the recipe?
The answer to nearly every question in this forum that starts with “can I…” is almost always “Yes, let us know how it works out.”
In this case, though, I can just say plain old yes and tell you that it will work out fine. I freeze pizza dough all the time and it works great.
The main thing you will have to take into account is timing. You can of course freeze the dough at any point along the way and what happens when you defrost it will be different depending on where it is in its proofing cycle when it goes into the freezer.
You probably want to freeze it after the bulk proof but before any shaping / second proof. And because there is going to be some time of continued proofing as it freezes and some time of continued proofing as it thaws (before you’ll be able to shape it), you probably want to freeze it somewhat shy of fully bulk proofed - I’m thinking maybe half an hour or an hour (depending on how big a chunk of dough you are freezing).
When I do the pizza dough, I freeze it in one pizza increments so it freezes and thaws relatively quickly. All that would happen more slowly with a full bread loaf of dough.
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Just wondering if you’ve done this, and how it worked out? I have the same question, about freezing bread dough at some point in the proofing process, and how the finished product turned out.
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This is the first post I’ve seen on the subject so I want to look at others but I plan on trying it in the next few days. Sourdough.
Have you tried yet? I’ll report back but after reading the above will freeze after the bulk proof, which I normally retard overnight. Hope this works, need to cut down on the time.
Just a thought: I would freeze the dough BEFORE the bulk proof – it takes less room in the freezer, and the yeast hasn’t completed producing the coveted bubbles in the dough, yet. Freezing causes gas (bubbles) to contract. When the dough is later warmed, the expanding gas could compromise portions of the gluten chain that formed while the dough temp was declining, with smaller bubbles from less active yeast and chilled gas, and before the dough reached 40°F, the temp yeast activity pretty much stops.
When freezing product made with baker’s yeast the expectation is 30% of the yeast will die-off when frozen. I would expect something similar for the wild yeast in sourdough dough. To compensate, you might try adding baker’s yeast with the expectation 30% of all (both wild and baker’s) yeast in your dough will be DOA when brought out of the frozen ‘deep sleep’.
As a starting point, I would presume baker’s yeast at 2% of the weight of all flour in your recipe. You don’t want to add all 2% of it, your sourdough dough already has some yeast in it. I would suggest adding only 30% of that amount of baker’s yeast … or 0.6% of the flour weight … but, the baker’s yeast you add will also die-off at 30%. To round it all off, I would add baker’s yeast at 0.7% of the flour weight. Also, I would freeze the dough immediately after mixing, well before proofing starts. I suggest you bring the dough back to life in a refrigerator for 24 hrs, and delay the bulk proofing clock until 2 to 4-hrs AFTER removing the sourdough dough from the refrigerator.
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I regularly freeze balls of pizza dough after bulk proofing. Then on pizza nights we take them out of the freezer sometime late morning and let them thaw and final proof at room temp. I would say that the final proof is somewhat less active than with non-frozen dough, but still plenty acceptable and the pizza’s have good oven spring and very nice airy crust.
Not the same thing as baking a loaf of bread, but maybe a useful data point.
Edit: should have specified that I am talking about sourdough-leavened dough.
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Paul, how does the “final proof” work for your naturally leaven dough … do you shape the ‘pie’ and then let it proof at room temp? … or do you bulk proof, divide, freeze, thaw and continue the proof, then shape the pie? I would love to be able to produce a natural leaven, whole-wheat pizza, but so far I have not made anything that is acceptable, let alone something that was frozen.
After the bulk proof, we divide the dough into pizza-sized balls and individually freeze those in plastic baggies. Then on a pizza day we take a couple of those baggies out of the freezer to thaw. In this context, once they are thawed and the yeast kicks back into metabolic action, they begin poofing up inside the baggies - that’s what I call the final proof. When that’s done enough (really, when the baking stone is adequately pre-heated in the oven), I just take the doughballs out of the baggies and then shape into pies, top, and into the oven.
A little bird told me recently that @Fermentada is working on a new whole grain, naturally leavened pizza recipe that I imagine will be showing up here sooner or later.
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Thanks. That makes sense. Haver tried freezing the dough just after proof of life? It would mean a much longer proofing when removed from the fridge - I am curious about any difference in the pie bread when baked.
I have never tried doing that.