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Re: How Can I Retard Rise Without Souring

Werner Gansz <wwgansz@madriver.com>
Sun, 23 Oct 2011 07:53:41 -0400
v111.n042.2
You didn't say how long this baking project took before you put the 
bread in the fridge.  I'd be astonished if the dough soured in one 
day of working and one night in the fridge.  Putting dough in the 
fridge overnight is on of the best methods for improving the flavor 
of breads made with commercial yeast.  It retards the yeast but 
allows the enzyme action that reduces the starches to sugars to 
continue.  The bread should be sweeter, not sour.  Only after several 
days will the dough start to sour.  I use the fridge all time for 
yeast doughs for bagels, bialys, rye and wheat breads, focaccias, 
pizza.  They all get sweeter, caramelize to a more golden crumb, and 
have deeper brown crust because of the additional sugars developed 
while in the fridge.   Many of the recipes in Peter Reinhart's Bread 
Bakers Apprentice use the fridge as a flavor enhancer.  The flavor 
that results is a nuttier sweetness, not sour.

Are you sure you are not just picking up flavors from the 
fridge?  BTW. salt can be used as a yeast inhibitor, but of course, 
salt affects the flavor.