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Author Topic: freezing sourdough  (Read 1437 times)

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Offline 2ndtimearound

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freezing sourdough
« on: March 01, 2016, 01:06:53 PM »
Has anybody had success with frozen dough balls made with sourdough starter? if so could you explain when in the process you freeze them and how best to defrost.

Thanks
Mark

Offline texmex

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Re: freezing sourdough
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2016, 01:45:22 PM »
Yes, I regularly freeze doughballs made from sourdough.   It has always been better to freeze about halfway thru the fermentation process. So, that will depend on how much sd you used to begin with, how long you expect the dough to need room temp rise or a combo of room temp and refridge fermentation.   I normally take frozen dough out of tge freezer and into fridge the day before baking, then some hours out of the fridge before baking.  It is more about knowing your dough and how it should look, feel when fully developed, using a specific amount of culture and fermentation times.  With SD I had less success freezing straight away after mixing scaling and balling.  Using commercial yeasts it was no problem, but with SD my yeasts seemed really sluggish after freezing, so I try to get them halfway to the goal before freezing.
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Offline 2ndtimearound

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Re: freezing sourdough
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2016, 03:09:32 PM »
Yes, I regularly freeze doughballs made from sourdough.   It has always been better to freeze about halfway thru the fermentation process. So, that will depend on how much sd you used to begin with, how long you expect the dough to need room temp rise or a combo of room temp and refridge fermentation.   I normally take frozen dough out of tge freezer and into fridge the day before baking, then some hours out of the fridge before baking.  It is more about knowing your dough and how it should look, feel when fully developed, using a specific amount of culture and fermentation times.  With SD I had less success freezing straight away after mixing scaling and balling.  Using commercial yeasts it was no problem, but with SD my yeasts seemed really sluggish after freezing, so I try to get them halfway to the goal before freezing.

I usaually do a 65 degree bulk ferment for about 36-48 hours using 1.5% starter. So you're saying about 18 or so hours into it to portion some out and go to the freezer. 
Can extra balls that have been totally fermented be frozen? some times i get carried away and make 8-10 balls and have several left over.





Offline texmex

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Re: freezing sourdough
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2016, 04:53:52 PM »
Ive never tried freezing a fully fermented dough, but when one slips by you and is hanging out int the back of the fridge for a long time, it's almost never a total loss if you gentle it into a skin and go ahead and bake. Definitely try freezing some fully fermented dough and tell us how it works out for you.  It's fairly amazing how long a chunk of dough can go before becoming totally useless!

Yeah, the bulk rise of18 hours, then scaling and freezing sounds very feasible.  I have done a bit faster bulk rise with small amount of SD at a higher temp than yours for about 12 hours RT then scale and fridge half the batch, and froze the other half.  I couldn't tell a difference in the bake after thawing the frozen dough and letting it ferment a bit more on the counter when I  was ready to use it.
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Offline 2ndtimearound

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Re: freezing sourdough
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2016, 05:12:42 PM »
Thanks for your input.
I post back when i have results.




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