Total flop! My delicious potato and wheat burger buns that were shaped as raw dough and frozen? Didn’t rise properly after thawing. I’m unclear as to whether they needed more time or the yeast was just kaput. I thawed them in the fridge then let them rise at room temperature for 4.5 hrs. They were heavy and dense with no off flavors (like a soft pretzel). I proofed them warm but they just never grew properly. Here’s how they were last time.
Can anyone enlighten me as to what may have happened?
maybe overproofed over those 4.5 h?
I have not tried freezing raw dough, before or after the rise. No experience but yeast seems to be fickle!
Some of my refrigerated doughs don’t rise too well after a couple days and I assume that is because the yeast overproofed slowly in the fridge, before baking.
I don’t think so. They didn’t grow enough. No off smells either.
The dough rose a bit more in the fridge, was nice and soft, didn’t rise much if at all after shaping, didn’t rise much if at all during baking. Tasted fine.
Toronto Jo’s Southern buttermilk biscuits, most now frozen for versatile uses: breakfast sandwiches, strawberry shortcakes, and sides for stew. Shown here topped with a bit of shredded parm beside this week’s Truckadeo beef stew. I wasn’t careful to press and align evenly as I did the letter folds and pats to flatten before cutting, so many of the biscuits tilted as they baked - still great taste but leaning-tower-of-Pisa visual effect. Has her recipe been posted here on HO? I only have the Chowhound link saved with my text copy of recipe and notes.
Here’s what I saved:
Buttermilk Biscuits from TorontoJo
3 cups all purpose flour
1 - 2 T sugar (depends on how sweet you want your biscuit)
4 t baking powdr
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1.5 - 2 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in large bowl. Using fingertips, rub the chilled butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse meal. Make a well in the mixture, add 1.5 c. of buttermilk and stir/fold gently until evenly moistened. If it looks too dry add a more buttermilk a bit at a time until you get the texture you want. It’s ok to still have some dry crumbly bits.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface. With floured hands, use your fingertips to gently flatten out the dough. Fold the dough in half and flatten again (use a pastry scraper to lift up the dough if it’s sticking to the coutner. Repeat 5 or 6 times. Flatten the dough to about an inch thick and use a 2” – 2.5” biscuit cutter to cut out rounds (don’t twist!).
For separate biscuits, place rounds about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. For pull apart biscuits, place rounds lightly touching each other on a baking sheet or 9x13 cake pan.
For drop biscuits, don’t bother with turning the dough out. Just scoop about a 1/4 cup dough right from the bowl and drop onto baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake until biscuits are golden brown on top, 13-15 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool.
How long were they in the freezer? If it was a substantial amount of time (a few months, say), some of the yeast may have died off.
I’m not sure if this was meant in reply to me, because I’m not following.
It was about a month.
Hmm. I would doubt that was the culprit, then.
I’ve had dough inadvertently overprove in the fridge sometimes. Doesn’t always smell of anything. I wonder if you could have just let it defrost on the counter, but I’m guessing you were trying to time the bake.
It was in reply to you.
I was mentioning my experience with some refrigerated dough that rose and likely over proofed slowly in the fridge, with no off odors, that looked normal while being shaped, that did not rise later when baked.
I haven’t tried freezing unbaked dough.
I’m curious about this for our bakers:
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