I made a commercially-yeasted pizza dough about a week ago, but in all the viral circumstances, I’ve kept it in the fridge, as one might do with a sourdough. If I want to use it, does it need reviving, is it spoiled, is it becoming a sourdough if I “feed” it"?
Thanks!
Have done that myself. I use the old refrigeratored dough as 50% of a new batch to tone down the ‘sourness’ a bit. Worked fine.
I did that. I made far too much yeasted dough last Saturday, and stored it in the fridge, taking out just enough for a loaf every couple of days and a pizza crust. It still rose well yesterday. There was a cup left over, so I mixed it with some more flour and water at a 5:3 ratio, and added salt. This took a few hours to get started, much longer than the Saturday batch, but it did double in size eventually. I put it in the fridge to slow-proof, and I’ll make more bread tomorrow morning.
Did you also add more yeast?
I didn’t. This was an experiment in propagating the older batch as a “mother” to the new batch. I just set a loaf out for a final rise, and we’ll see in a couple of hours whether it worked.
Success! The dough was a little wet, and so spread out in the baking tin, but it rose well enough for a good crumb. So, that’s the ticket for now, reserve a cup or so of dough and mix it in with fresh flour, water and salt, let it proof overnight in the fridge and then rise for a couple of hours in the baking tin.
Now, if only I can find flour…
I hope you know that salt can kill yeast. Some recipes call for adding it after proofing.
I’ve found that there are two meanings for “proofing”, when you dissolve active dry yeast in a little water and maybe a little sugar or honey, and let it sit for 10-15 minutes until it starts to bubble, and as a synonym for rising after the ingredients, including salt, are mixed. I meant the latter, just a long and slow rise in the fridge.
That dough I made back in April lasted until about a week ago. I reserved some of the dough from each batch and used it to make subsequent batches. It finally petered out after a month, and I started again with another packet of instant yeast (which doesn’t need proofing in the first sense of the word). I lucked into a regular source of yeast from our local hippie bakery, so I’m all set, going forward.
The first is a good way to always check that your yeast is alive.
I think it also activates it faster than tossing the whole lot of ingredients together a la the no knead recipes I tend to favor. Maybe it’s in my head, but I think I get a better outcome when I do vs when I don’t.
