Cranberry Walnut Bread — Mrs Cindy

[cwcdesign]

I have MrsCindy's recipe for Cranberry Walnut Bread which I would love to make now that I have my Zo. It is very time intensive and she usesd the bread machine (having tried it with my stand mixer, I can tell you it will be easier), the food processor for mixing nuts and flour. Basically, you make a sponge and let it sit for a couple of hours, then add the dry ingredients and let sit undisturbed for 2-3 hour, then add more ingredients and knead for ½ hour. Dump it out and squish it altogether to incorporate the nuts and cranberries. THEN, you form it into a ball and put it in the fridge in a ziploc overnight. After that, you need to bring it to room temperature (a few hours) then shape and let it rise and then bake.

My question regards the amount of time it can spend in the fridge. I know that some doughs you can let stay in the fridge for several days. I'm wondering if I can do that with this bread. I am off tomorrow when I could make the dough, but I'm not off again until Sunday when I would have all day. Do you think I could wait that long? I could probably do it Thursday or Friday after work, but I'd rather not.

Spread the word

      

  

  

[BakerAunt]

Cwcdesign--I was hoping that someone had some information on this issue for you. I have not done many recipes where the dough spent time overnight in the refrigerator. The main issue would be for the yeast not to be exhausted, and I suspect that you might need to punch it down after a day or so. Did you end up trying it?

[cwcdesign]

I ended up having to go into work yesterday, so didn’t get to make the dough. Going to make it tomorrow and then bake on Sunday. That will be 2 nights, so I think it should be ok. The recipe calls for whole grain bread improver which is supposed to help, but I don’t have it. It’s not actually necessary.

[Mike Nolan]

I think the concept of yeast getting 'exhausted' or using up all the sugars in the flour is more myth than reality. I once tried making a bread where I let it bulk rise for about an hour 5 times, it was still rising fine, and the bread was excellent, a very complex flavor.

I've also made breads where the dough sat in the refrigerator for several days, taking out just what you need to make bread that day. I thought that on day 2 it had the best flavor, by day 4 it started to take on some characteristics of a sourdough, with a bit of a sourdough tang to it.

Punching the dough down every day is probably a good idea.

There are some pizza parlors that age their dough for 48 hours before baking it.

[Author]

Posts