Final shaping before proofing in fridge?

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The muffin man
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Joined: 2015-08-15 12:20
Final shaping before proofing in fridge?

Hi all!

New here. Recently returned to sourdough baking after a few years' hiatus. Discovered the SCS podcast and picked up some really good pointers. Thanks for that, chef Jacob!

Currently I am looking to perfect my weekend morning bread. I usually mix a sourdough poolish friday morning and store it at room temperature to get it going. In the evening I prep the rest of the ingredients by doing an autolyse and then adding the poolish. I like to keep things in the 70-75% hydration and skip the kneading. A few stretch & folds and then into the fridge over night. That way I get more free time with the kids during the evening.

In the morning I start the oven (convection with pizza stone) and take the dough out of the fridge and start shaping it. However, the kids are quite hungry straight away, so the time it takes to shape the dough + final proofing is a tad too long for us.

Of course I could just throw it in the oven in whatever shape it comes out of the fridge as (think: ciabatta-esque), but to me the aestethic part is important. I want to dock the bread, to get it to lock nice. The kids don't care about that, but It'd be fun to still be able to do that.

So I am thinking along the lines of perhaps working the dough a bit more in the evening and do a final shaping before I go to bed - storing it in a small wicker basket (can't spell the French word for it) in the fridge. Or shaping small "buns" (don't know the English word for small round pieces of bread) and store it in the fridge like a pizza baker does.

Your take on that? Any negative side effects of not degassing the dough in the morning and letting it proof again? Am I looking at a side blowout because of underproofing or too cold dough or something like that?

Thanks in advance for ideas & suggestions.