Bread – What changes can I make to a bread recipe to prevent it collapsing when rising overnight in fridge

breadretarding-bread

I'm trying to rise bread overnight in the fridge and sometime it collapses.

What changes could I try in the recipe to try to stop this from happening? I think I need to retard the yeast action (I'm using fast-acting) but I'm not sure if I should add or remove salt, sugar, or use less yeast. Do I need to add another agent to control this process?

I want to make good loaves overnight and bake them in the morning. If I could I'd leave them in the oven overnight and use the built-in timer, but I suspect that's not going to work at all (aside from it definitely over-proving it'd be the same as putting it into a cold oven then switching it on).

Update: The Recipe…

650g strong white bread flour
10g salt
5g sugar
15g soft butter
7g sachet easy bake yeast
400ml warm water; 1 part boiling 2 parts cold

In summary, it calls for baking it at 230c (no mention of fan ovens), and claims that it's suitable for overnight rising. It's a single rise method.

Best Answer

The fermentation of yeast raised dough is a complex interaction of:

  • Temperature - yeast are nearly dormant at 40 F, and die at about 120 F; in between, they get more active as the temperature rises
  • Initial amount of yeast - Yeast is alive, and will grow exponentially, if given the chance to. However, the initial quantity of yeast in the dough can be used to get this process started more quickly, or to delay the onset of very rapid activity
  • Sugar - The presence of small amounts (up to 10%) of readily available sugar in the dough, within limits, will encourage the yeast to grow more quickly--however, high concentrations of sugar actually inhibit yeast growth
  • Salt - Higher concentrations of salt also inhibit yeast growth

This paper from MIT discusses in detail several of these factors. The different types of yeasts do have different activity curves, with active dry producing the fast growth in CO2.

Your best bet to adjust the recipe if it is over-proofing is:

  • Lower the proofing temperature, if you can— check your refrigerator and make sure it is performing well. Get the dough to proofing temperature quickly. You may want to cut batch into two proofing containers in order for it too cool more quickly if you have a lot of dough.
  • Lower the initial quantity of yeast, cutting it by as much as 50% or 75%
  • Very slightly raise the salt level--above 2% salt levels inhibit yeast growth, but also affect the flavor of the bread
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