Hi all, for bit of context I’ve been doing sourdough for 7 months now but have been struggling with my time management. What I’ve been struggling the most is if I don’t take my starter out of the fridge in the morning I need to pre shape and final shape super late at night. Sometimes my alarm to do that goes off at like 1am 🙃
Well, two nights ago I was just too tired. My sourdough has only been bulk fermenting for 4 hours and it was midnight already so technically I should have waited for around 3 more hours, pre shape, wait another 20mins and then final shape. I decided just to place it in a fridge (no shaping, literally in the glass bowl I put it straight in the fridge). Yesterday morning at around 10am I took it out of the fridge , waited for 20mins and pre shaped, waited another 20mins, final shaped and put it in a banneton and back into the fridge overnight. This morning I baked it and it turned out amazing!
Lesson here is you can put a “pause” on your bulk ferment (it is still fermenting in the fridge but way slower) . Maybe this is common knowledge so I do apologise if this is not news for you but it sure was for me 😅
My usual process below:
Take starter out of the fridge and let it sit room temp for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, feed it. Currently feeding 1:1:1 100g starter, 100g flour (50% white bread and 50% wholemeal) and 100g lukewarm filtered water.
Let rest for 4-6h until it’s doubled in size and bubbly.
Just before it has doubled in size – autolyse. Mix 500g of flour and 350g of lukewarm water. Cover and let it rest for 30-60 minutes.
After that mix in 10g of salt a tiny bit of water and mix with hand.
Mix in 100g of starter and mix with hand (clamp style) for about 10min.
Leave it to rest. Do 4 sets of stretch and fold 30min apart.
After 4th set. Leave it to bulk ferment for about 5-7 hours.
Pre-shape and let it rest for 20min.
Final shape and into the fridge.
Next day, pre heat oven (with dutch over inside) to 260C for minimum 45min. Score and into the oven covered for 30min. After 30min, remove cover and bake another 17-20min.
Leave to cool for 1h before cutting.
by Excellent-Art6744
7 Comments
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Great looking loaf.
100%! As a home baker the fridge is your best friend when making sourdough. You can chuck the dough in the fridge at pretty anytime during the process (except for when it’s baking in the oven) and come back to it at a more suitable time. Not only does it help with time management, the slower ferment also helps develop flavour.
Your bread looks exceptional BTW. Keep it up!
You let it rest for 5-7 hours at room temperature and then in the fridge?
It’s so neat to see someone have almost the exact same method as me! I even did the EXACT same fridge nap in the glass bowl for the first time this weekend. I feel like we’re in a secret club.
Your loaf turned out better than mine! Mine didn’t get the same oven spring as usual, but I’m also working with a new oven so I might just have some kinks to work out.
Excellent post! You’ve cracked the code on an essential aspect of sourdough baking with beautiful results. With ~4 hours of bulk fermentation, it still takes time for the fridge to slow, and eventually stop the fermentation process. Shaping cold dough is easier in almost any instance. Bottom line: Gotta love happy “mistakes,” especially when they yield great results. CONGRATS 🎈
Beautiful loaf! My sourdough process became so much easier and more delicious when I stopped following the “rules” so strictly. I mix my dough with unfed starter; I measure in cups not by weight *gasp*; sometimes I do lots of stretch and folds, sometimes just a few; sometimes mine goes in the fridge, sometimes not. You can still have yummy bread!