Why 24 hours in the frig?

I am new to bread making and more so with the sour dough breads. I am making the “Traditional whole grain sourdough”.

Why is there a 24 hour fermament in the frig?
Why not just do an overnight ferment at room temp and bake the next day?

What recipe are you following? Indeed your way of thinking is correct but the recipe might be designed in such a way for a number of reasons and I wouldn’t like to venture a guess till I’ve seen it.

Like I said in my post it is the " Traditional Whole Grain Sourdough" recipe. He also list it as Artisan Whole Grain Sourdough. I don’t know what else to say about it. I don’t see any numbering system or anything like that? Plus, doesn’t the yeast just go dormant in the frig?

Sometime posting a link is helpful:

Obviously the refrigerator “fermament” is how you get to sourdough heaven. (sorry).

A lot of people (I’m one) find that slowing down the fermentation process of sourdough by refrigeration (called “retarding” the dough - google retarding dough) has a positive effect on the resulting bread flavor.

Other reasons for a period in the fridge are for timing / convenience.

2 Likes