Thursday, April 9, 2009

Suggestions?

I'm not sure if I told you about my bread for the freezer part of prepping for baby. I made a normal batch of french bread, which you mix and let rise and punch down several times, then roll and let rise again before baking.

Here's my problem: I mixed it and let it rise for the first hour, then rolled it and wrapped in plastic wrap and froze it. It looked pretty funny, because for some reason, on each end, it pooped out a big glob of dough :-)

But yesterday I took one out to thaw and bake to eat w/ spaghetti last night. It thawed with no problem, but when I put it in a warm oven to rise, it just sat there. And sat there. And then kinda started to flatten out... Lost all it's oomph.

I don't know what happened? I thought this should work because you can buy dinner rolls in the freezer section that still have to rise, right? Any thoughts? Please? I was really hoping to have a quicker bread option in the freezer.... like for salad and pastas. We like our bread :-)
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6 comments:

Family Circus 6 said...

when you figure it out, you'll have to let me know. I'd love to make bread but the one time I tried it was horrible! Baked on the outside, doughy on the inside (a bunch of dinner rolls baked in a 9x13) bummer!

April 9, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Kari said...

I got this book for my birthday - Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day - (http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutionizes/dp/0312362919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239310407&sr=8-1) and it is AWESOME. Each batch is enough for 4 loaves and you just keep it in your fridge till you need it (up to 14 days). No kneading, no rising except at the very beginning....Just pull a lump out, shape it, let it rest for 40 minutes & then bake it. So easy & pretty tasty. (my other book, The Bread Bible is tastier, but lots more work)

Anyways, it reccomends baking the bread for 90% of the bake time, cooling it at room temperature and then freezing it for "parbaked bread" Then you defrost for a couple hours & bake at the same temperature for 5-15 minutes.

My other book, the "Bread Bible" says to freeze dough, you need about 25% more yeast and it only keeps in the freezer for 2 weeks. She also prefers the parbake method.

I have been baking a ton of bread lately, it is so fun! (and I have no idea how they do the frozen bread dough at the super market. hmmmm....)

April 9, 2009 at 1:55 PM
Kari said...

oh, I was just looking in my book again and noticed that they do reccomend freezing "sweetened & enriched doughs" - ones with eggs, butter, sugar, etc. Not sure why, but I bet the dinner rolls at the store have fat & sugar in them! It must help somehow...hmmmm....

April 9, 2009 at 2:12 PM
D said...

Joy- you should visit Tammysrecipes.com (I think I've linked to her on my main page) I use her recipes for most of our breads, and they work great! PS- if you use her french bread recipe, it makes two HUGE loaves, so I form four littler ones, or make mini ones for the girls.

Thanks Kari! I'll have to check out that book- I love making bread, but don't like how much time it takes (I never get dinner started that early). I'll have to try the parbake method. I know that's how they get their bread at Costco- it appears fully baked, but they thaw it and cook it for a bit...

I'll update when I have a successful batch!

April 9, 2009 at 2:52 PM
Karalee said...

I don't care to bake and freeze my bread. However I have found that if I bake it, let it cool completely, then stick it in the freezer on a cookie sheet or something until frozen. I then take it out, foodsave it with the fcodsaver and stick it back in the freezer until we want it. You can take it out, throw it in the oven and it'll be just like freshed baked bread. :)

Hope you find something that works really well for you. :)

April 9, 2009 at 5:40 PM
Anonymous said...

Yeast grows at an extremely low rate when it gets really cold, and it could possibly stop growing all together.. That is why it flattened out :)

April 9, 2009 at 5:44 PM

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