How Long Can You Ferment Bread Dough For? Long Cold Fermentation Test

Cold bulk fermentation has been my go-to bread making method lately. It is convenient, easy, and the resulting bread has a far superior flavour. Usually, I leave the dough to ferment for 12 – 24 hours because it produces a great result, and I don’t want to plan my bakes too far ahead of time. And although my fridge is usually quite empty it does fill up occasionally and I can’t afford to take up any more space in it.

There are many recipes out there (usually for pizza dough) which suggest cold fermenting for several days. This got me thinking as to how long we can ferment bread dough in the fridge and how fermentation time affects the resulting bread.

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#Bread #Baking #ChainBaker

[ChainBaker]

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[anabollich]

My fridge space is always at max capacity. Sourdough starter, tortilla balls, pizza doughs, bulk ferments, loaf pans... what have you done to me sir

[sonian]

Guys, I finally did a 2week fermented country bread. 80% bread flour & 20%whole wheat flour. The flavour was incredible! I ate the whole loaf the same day, lol.
The rise wasn't the best like in the video, and the crumb structure was quite close, but damn did it taste good.
I'd definitely recommend trying it out.

[calmeilles]

Here's a coincidence. Last weekend I made some dough (flour, salt, water at 60% hydration) which has been kept in the fridge and from which I have been taking 200g to pan cook, like a naan, for lunch. So I've had 2, 3 4 & 5 day fermented bread this week — just finished the last one as I watched the video!

Observations: The longer it was kept the easier it was to shape. The 5 days was distinctly "wetter" in handling than the 2 even though one might expect some losses from evaporation. The flavour improved throughout, the 5 day was _very_ nice. However the appearance after cooking was best — which is to say most like — for the 2 day. The longer it fermented the looser it got and the flatter it sat in the pan even on the flipped side so while the first one had lovely charred at the dome big bubbles the last was much flatter and a more even golden brown when cooked.

[MusicIsOdd]

These comparison videos have improved my baking by 10x over the past few months. Thanks Chain!

[alant]

I just made my first cold fermentation baguette. Left it in the fridge for 3 days. The crumb was ridiculously good, there was a spiderweb texture and the flavor was amazing. I'll have to play around with the yeast, folds, and timing, but there's so much potential with this method. Not to mention the convenience!

[bbanne]

I got lazy recently and slept on my pizza making after prepping my dough and had left my dough in the fridge for nearly two weeks. And I’m glad I did because the results were magical. The dough flavor, smell and texture was an incredible experience. So now I’m inspired to be more picky with my process. The recipe I use is also new to me, it uses a little wine and honey and I add extra sugar to my yeast. It feels like an all the bells and whistles dough and I’ve come a long way from making disaster too dry and heavy doughs that just didn’t perform, now I get pizza bubbles and it has taken me years to get here. I came here wanting to learn more about the fermentation process because I was on the verge of rushing a dough for the weekend but changed my mind. I will wait. I also make sure to use my mixer and to knead the dough until smooth and firm, I noticed it gets less sticky this way the longer you knead, which stops me from adding and adding unnecessary flour, I can keep the moisture and hydration. I also started using pizza pans instead of trying to toss the pizza directly into my pizza oven. The toss always possessed me to add more and more unnecessary flour and produced disasters. So I’m not a fancy pizza chef but I feel pretty good currently.

[srpower]

You are by far my favorite content maker for breads! Thank you for this!

[Mimeh]

One day a few years ago I experimented with making no-knead bread, and I left the dough inside the cold oven and forgot about it. 😕 After about 24 hours of proofing, I remembered it was there. Though I figured it was ruined, I used it anyway. Best-tasting bread I ever made! 😁

[thecarlislehomestead]

2 days is the longest I have done because I thought that leaving it for longer would over proof it and it would be no good. Now I know differently. Thank you.

[StateofDecayScience]

Finally learned, HOW slow fermentation improves the flavor! You always talk a lot about it but I never did that because I didn't know HOW it improves the flavor. It is hard to follow something without knowing proper reasons.

But because of this video, my dough has been sent to the refrigerator for the first time! Following the steps from the "Cold bulk fermentation" video and will bake it in 2-3 days!

You should really rename your channel to something like "Baking Science by ChainBaker" or something like that! I am serious, otherwise the name will simply sound like any other generic cooking channel.

[coal.sparks]

I was making the new and improved basic bread but had to leave the dough in the fridge for a couple of days longer than planned and I didn't want to overdo anything, so this video was a huge relief to watch. I'm not over a week yet. Off to shape a lovely loaf to enjoy later today! :) I appreciate your scientific approach and I'm grateful that you share the results with us.

[kmpoffc]

I am a chef who somewhat always struggled with baking but I'm starting to enjoy it more with your explanations. Thank you for making these videos

[Jule]

Would be nice to see the same thing with sourdough instead of yeast! :)

[janetgerney]

Love this video, and the results are so interesting! I just happened to run my own 'experiment' in long cold fermentation with my sourdough. Put the dough into the fridge, was planning on a 36/48 hr cold ferment (I usually do 24 hr) then got sick with covid.
Anyway...the loaf fermented for about 5 days....
When I felt better, I baked it off.
The taste was fantastic, and no large holes below the top crust....!
Although I probably won't be doing this regularly, I sure will play with this!
Thanks!!

[Diovaynes]

I used to always bake some bread, but never knew how to properly bake one. I only did what a recipe would say to do.
One day, I was planning to go out with some of the boys, for one's birthday celebration, but I had internet issues that prevented me to get in touch with them. So I decided to make a bread dough, which we were in need since there was not much left. After the first bulk fermentation, I had placed the doughs in these molds for the last rise, then I managed to get internet connection to talk with them, and they said the party had started already. So I decided to leave it on the fridge.
That was the best bread I've ever made. It stayed on the fridge for a whole day I think, and it had such a great taste to it. Now that I'm learning more about bread baking in this channel, maybe I'll give a go on a 7 days dough.

[virginiavoigt]

I have been doing experiments rather like yours, except some of mine are by default. All my doughs between 2 and 7 days have turned out well. But I forgot one for somewhere between 3 and 4 weeks. It ended up in the back of the fridge where it was cold enough to partially freeze. When I looked at it, it was mostly black on the top, not moldy, but the cause of the color was not discernible. And it was partially frozen. I threw it away. I like to make dough ahead of time because I never know when I will want fresh bread, so I want to be ready to bake in a few hours. My system works for me but obviously has some limitations. Thanks for the science. I can observe differences but you give them meaning.

[bass]

I had an 8 day cold ferment, it was supposed to be 3 but just kept having things delay it. It certainly wasn't my prettiest load but everyone agreed it was the tastiest.

[TrasherBiner]

I wanted to make a cold fermentation bread last year and I figured ok I will let it rest here for 24 hours. Thing is at the time my fridge was really packed and I didn't notice the dough that I placed on the top behind the eggs. 11 days later I noticed the container and I was "omg this will be inedible". It looked like a web of a spider and it had a strong smell of alcohol or beer (I barely put in there the tiniest pinch of yeast). Thing is I decided to bake it, thinking that it was going to be ruined. Nope after preshaping like you showed us in the channel I got similar results to your 14 day ferment, not very springy and had a dark colour, but damn it tasted like some artisan oldschool country bakery bread. Best bread I ever made, pity it was such a small roll that I made as a test. Thanks to your video I think I will try again, just for 24 hours (and this time I will put a reminder on my phone to notify me that I need to bake that).

[El_Hombre_Dan]

These principles of baking videos are awesome. I've learned more about baking from you then I have from any book, article or bread baker YouTuber out there.
I no knead and cold bulk ferment my dough for about a week but started pinching back a piece of dough before baking it. I then add that piece of old dough into my new dough and let it cold bulk ferment for another week before doing it all over again. That small piece of old dough adds an extra kick of flavor. it also feels Like I have a sourdough starter without having to feed it.

...I bake once a week so this routine works great for me.