Peter Reinhart 39;s Artisan Breads Every Day

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Totaly Pavlina

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:13:00 PM8/3/24

to thiselcusu

The recipe gives two options: mix the dough and put in the fridge to ferment overnight, or you can let the dough rise after mixing, shape it, and then let the shaped dough rise in the fridge. I tried half the batch one way, and half the other.

The boule was the bread that was shaped before being refrigerated. When it came out of the oven, it has a sweeter, wheatier smell than the other bread. But, the taste of all the bread, and the texture as well, was the same. The crust on the boule did look a bit nicer, though.

In both cases, cold fermentation, or letting the dough rise in the fridge, gives great flavor and texture to the bread. The fridge slows down fermentation, which improves the flavor of the bread. It is just a matter of convenience whether you slow the fermentation down (or the risings of the bread dough) at the stage where your are giving the bread its first rise or at the stage where you are giving the bread a second and final rise after shaping it into loaves.

I just started baking and I bought Peter Reinharts artisan breads everyday. I am making the classic french bread and i had 2 issues: firs one was he says to make the dough the day before and put in fridge overnight, which I did. today was the day i woe up tokk my dough ou and had to cut into 10oz portions and shape to a batard. The problem I have is shaping them into batards I feel cold dough was not letting me seel the dough and as I was rolling the m I felt it was coming apart at the seems. Should i Have let the dough rest at room temp first before shaping?

Second issue Ihad was afer scoring which I used a serrated knife, I baled bread according to the book using the hearth oven method and the bread didnt spring and I ended uo with just slashes in bread that didnt poof out. I think issue was while bread was proofing I left them on top of hot oven and the proofed masybe too quickly?

Hmm . . . I have shaped cold dough many times and have not had that problem. It is definitely true that dough will seem less sticky after resting in the fridge, partly because it has had a chance to absorb moisture and maybe partly because it is cold (maybe). Maybe what is happening is that you are adding too much flour and the dough is too dry after its rest in the fridge.

Try sending your question to thefreshloaf.com or try searching to see if anyone else had this problem in the forums. This a wonderful site where lots of experienced bakers participate, and many of them are Peter Reinhart fans. I highly recommend checking it out if you are new to bread baking and want to learn more.