Proofing Sourdough In The Fridge
You've probably heard that proofing your sourdough in the fridge is one of the best ways to make a loaf with an incredible flavor and texture, and I’m gonna teach you how to do it!
Cold proofing is a powerful tool in your baker’s toolkit. This process is also known as cold retard – because it slows down the fermentation in your sourdough, this longer fermentation time allows for improved development of both crumb and taste.
Cold fermenting sourdough lends that irresistible blistered, crisp crust that we sourdough aficionados love – as the moisture from the outer layer is evaporated or absorbed into the banneton.
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How To Proof Sourdough In The Fridge
- Follow your favorite sourdough bread recipe as written until you get to the final shaping stage.
- Shape the dough as desired, in a boule or batard. Place the shaped loaf into a banneton basket or banneton alternative and rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Cover the proofing basket with a plastic shower cap, plastic wrap, or slide into a plastic bag.
- Place the covered banneton into the fridge for your desired length of time.
- When ready to bake, simply preheat oven and dutch oven.
- Once the oven is preheated, you can bake the sourdough straight from the fridge.
What Is Proofing?
In both regular (yeasted) bread making and sourdough baking, proofing refers to the rise after shaping. During yeasted baking it’s often called the final proof or final rise and sourdough bakers sometimes refer to it as the second rise, but most commonly it is called proofing – as the primary rise occurs during the bulk ferment.
During the dough proofing process, the shaped dough is allowed to rest and rise, usually until it grows by 50-75% in size. This allows the yeast to do its job and create carbon dioxide gas, stretching the gluten in the dough, and trapping the gas in bubbles within the bread.
This step is critically important for all bread or leavened goods, to give them a light, airy texture, not to mention the flavor! Without proofing, our bread would be flat, dense, and taste bland.
Why Proof Sourdough In The Fridge
In most of my sourdough recipes, I give the option to prove the loaf at room temperature for 1-3 hours or place in the refrigerator for a cold ferment. Whenever I have the option of choosing room temperature or proofing sourdough in the fridge, I always choose the fridge!
1. Better Flavor:
Dough that has been proofed in the fridge has a more complex, sourer flavor than room temperature proofed dough. When the bread is proofing at room temperature, the dough develops faster than the flavor, by slowing it down and proofing in the fridge, we are allowing the flavor to develop in time with the dough.
This is a direct result of the temperature slowing down the yeast’s fermentation activity, but the bacteria in the starter are less dependent on the temperature and they are able to continue breaking down starches into lactic and acetic acids, giving us a boost of that sour tang we can’t get enough of!
2. Easier To Handle:
Cold dough is much much easier to handle. It’s easier to flip out of your banneton, it’s easier to score, it’s just easier to work with. Especially for new bakers.
Warm dough tends to flatten once turned out of its banneton, giving you less time to flip it, score it, and transfer it to a dutch oven. I find my scoring lame also tends to stick to warm dough.
Cold dough is less urgent, it resists spreading for longer, it’s by far easier to score, and because it’s more sturdy, it’s easier to get into your dutch oven!
3. Adds Flexibility:
Sourdough is a process, a process I’ve come to truly enjoy, but it still takes a while.
Allowing your sourdough to cold retard in the fridge puts you back in the driver’s seat when it comes to baking sourdough.
Completing the second rise in the fridge extends your proofing window from 1-3 hours to days! You can bake that bread on your schedule, not the dough’s!
4. Better Crust + Crumb:
This one might be splitting hairs a little bit, but a cold fermented dough usually has a superior crust and crumb to a sourdough proofed at room temperature.
Baking cold sourdough tends to give that delicious, blistered crust that’s somehow crispy but also delicate at the same time. It’s 12/10 perfect.
The crumb is better because it takes time for gluten development in the dough especially with recipes that don’t incorporate kneading to speed it up. But this process is not temperature dependant, though it can be sped up by using the autolyse method.
When you chill the dough it slows the yeast down, allowing gluten development to catch up to the gasses released making for better-leavened bread and crumb.
How Long To Proof Sourdough In The Fridge
While there is a wide range of times that your sourdough can be proofed in the fridge and there is no right or wrong answer, a few things can determine the appropriate length of time for you.
Your Schedule
While a short 2-hour cold ferment will do nothing for the flavor, it can help if you have to pick up the kids from school while you should be baking! A super long 84-hour cold retard is probably too long and will result in over-proofed bread that lacks energy for decent oven spring.
But preparing 2-3 loaves and keeping them in the fridge to bake over the next 3 days is an awesome way to maximize your efforts, minimize clean up, and keep your family in fresh baked bread. I often prepare a few loaves on Saturday, then I have a fresh loaf to bake off for Sunday dinner, one to get us through the Mondays, and one to bake on Tuesday!
Your Tastes
If you prefer a more sour loaf, stretch that bulk ferment time on the counter to the limits before placing completing a short second rise in the fridge. If you prefer a more flavorful loaf, keep the bulk fermentation short and store it in the fridge for longer.
Your Recipe
The answer to this question also lies in the make up of your recipe and baking habits. Recipes with a higher quantity of starter likely need less time in the cold retard, likewise, recipes with a long bulk ferment at room temperature.
Recipes with a lower quantity of starter and a short bulk proof can be proved at cold temperatures for longer.
My Preferences For Proofing In The Fridge
For this post, I made 2 identical batches of sourdough using my small loaf sourdough recipe at the same time, everything was done exactly the same, except the proofing time.
My findings may surprise you, but my favourite fridge proofing time, for my starter, is 48+ hours. The loaf with the large air pockets was proofed for 24 hours in the fridge and the loaf with the smaller pockets was proofed 48 hours – its crumb was a lot more open than the photos show, it was likely just cut in the worst spot!
In the photo below, you can see that the crumb is actually slightly underdeveloped in the loaf with the large air pockets. This was apparent in the texture as well. The longer fermented bread was lighter and airier, in addition to having a more pleasing mildly sour taste, while the 24-hour cold fermented loaf lacked depth and complexity in the flavor.
The 48-hour bread also had a better oven spring and bloomed more at the score, this is apparent in the overhead photos below.
FAQ
Heck yes! Sourdough is super adaptable and doesn’t really need fancy tools or supplies. I actually baked sourdough for over a year without a banneton, using a pot, or a bowl. Here’s a list of banneton alternatives.
You’re totally able to proof at room temperature, it just occurs more quickly, so be prepared to bake within 1-3 hours after the final shaping.
A cold retard is simply the act of proofing your sourdough bread at cold temperatures (around 37f). Because the low temperature slows the yeast activity in the dough, it is called retarding. Cold fermenting and cold retarding are two different names for the same process.
The slowed fermentation rate is why I recommend storing your sourdough starter in the fridge if you’re an infrequent baker!
Absolutely!
Please cover your dough. Use a dedicated shower cap or even a recycled bread bag! The fridge can be a very drying place, due to the forced air inside to keep the temperature constant, this will dry out your bread and affect its oven spring and potentially ruin that irresistible crust!
I like to shape my dough, then rest at room temperature for about an hour before I toss it in the fridge, but this really depends on the dough itself and how far it has progressed during the bulk ferment. The longer the dough is left at room temperature, the longer the yeast has to consume the flour and the more likely that the dough will over-proof.
The short answer is to let is rest for about an hour after shaping, and the long answer is to watch the dough – the more you bake with sourdough the more you get to know your dough’s cues and will be able to stretch the fermenting times to the limit.
It will not!
But don’t be fooled, that doesn’t mean that it won’t puff up during baking. The cold temperature of the fridge slows down the yeast so the bacteria in the bread have time to work and create sour flavors while the gluten develops. Your bread will still rise beautifully and have a great oven spring because the yeast hasn’t consumed all the available food, they’ll reactivate during the baking process.
You can bake the sourdough straight out of the fridge, and I generally do so. This keeps the dough more firm, easy to work with, and easier to score.
What Are You Waiting For?!
If you haven’t been proofing your sourdough in the fridge, I hope this has empowered you to try it!
And if you have, I’d love to hear your timing sweet spot in the comments below.
I have been baking with my starter for over 7 years. I rarely get oven spring, maybe less than a handful of times. Putting in the fridge always seems to kill the starter. My starter appears with all the evidence that it is properly active and the dough always feels good and proper before putting it in the fridge. I have tried hundreds of different processes, and nothing has changed that fact. It is too warm to leave the dough out on counter, it then over proofs. The bread is always good, and the texture is also good, so I don’t stress to much about it, but it is frustrating.
Hey Bren. Let try to diagnose the oven spring problem!
What is your feeding routine? What is your bread making process? What does your baking process look like?
Hi, I pull starter out of fridge and start feeding for a couple of days or so before I want to start dough. It gets fed once per week, even if I don’t bake. Once starter is re-activated, I usually use 50g starter, 500g flour, 350g water 1 tsp salt. Mix, rest for 30-60 minutes, then start stretch & folding, try to get at least 3-4 30 minutes apart, by then dough has already doubled and then I shape and put in fridge. When I pull out of fridge, score and bake. Most of the time the dough holds it shape if I don’t leave it more than 12 hours in fridge. If I don’t get to it by then, it comes out deflated and loose, then I make flatbreads.
Hey Bren,
Ok, so your loaf doubles in size after only 3 hours from mixing with only 50g of starter? My basic recipe is very similar to yours; 100g starter, 340g water, 500g flour, 12g salt. You can see that recipe in action in my Fig and Brie Sourdough. That recipe has a fermentolyse (starter, water, flour combined) for 1 hour, then salt added and the stretch and fold process begins – 3 stretch and folds followed by a 60 minute rest. Then a final (fourth) stretch and fold, and a 3 hour bulk ferment. Then a preshape/shape, and a final proof in the banneton for 2-3 hours before baking or tossing in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
I went back to double check the timestamps on the photos for that recipe and it broke down as follows:
Mix 1040am
S&F 1140am
S&F 1239PM
S&F 145PM
S&F + BF 145-340pm
PreShape 340pm
Shape – 400pm
Bake – Next day 1pm
Unfortunately I don’t have the time when it completely finished the final proof but I’m guessing that it would have been 2 hours later. Though you can see in the photo how much it rose in the banneton.
I’m wondering if you’re under-fermenting – especially with a smaller amount of starter and a shorter time in the bulk ferment. What does the crumb look like?
It usually ends up around 3-4 hours by the time I am done with stretch and folds and it has doubled. I am in high altitude, have gone down to 15 g of starter at times and I have tried bulking on counter longer, but even after doubling, when it goes in fridge, it doesn’t move anymore and stays whatever size it is when it goes into fridge. I have the best luck on humid rainy days which we have maybe once a year if lucky. It is a fickle business making sourdough, but every time, it is still good to me and it is how I meditate so it is all good. Thanks for the replies. I will keep trying different things and enjoy it on the way.
Ahh I did not realize you were a high altitude baker! I do not have experience with that, but Pantry Mama has a fantastic article on high altitude baking adjustments for sourdough – exactly as you suspected, a shorter BF and even more water may help (as you experienced on humid days)!
Hello. Newbie to your page. I found this post on Pinterest and had to give it a read. I have a few friends who have never tried proofing in the fridge. I realize I’ve been calling it the ‘bulk fermentation’ when it’s actually a second rise or proof lol. So thanks for that tip haha. Anyways, I’ve been making sourdough for a little over a year now. I’ve learned so much. My loaves used to be flat more times than not and my scores were garbage(they’ve gotten better). My loaves and boules now have a good rise and taste so yummy. I only get compliments, thank God. But I didn’t know all these things about a cold ferment I just knew it worked for me and the flavor was always so yummy, even when I had flat boules/loaves. So thanks for explaining those amazing details about why cold ferments work. It makes sense why the loaves I’ve made have such great depths of flavor, yum! Now I’m going to send this article to my sourdough lover/baker gals, so they too can know why.
Hey Gianna, love it! Getting nerdy about the process is so fun!
Chan I cold proof a sour dough soft sandwich bread recipe as well? For 3 days? I’ve made it today, Thursday, and would like to bake on Sunday. Would this work?!
Hey Jan, it should be fine, but I would like to know a bit more about the recipe – what is the ratio of starter to flour, and how much has it risen at room temp during the bulk ferment? Some sourdough sandwich recipes have a high proportion of starter which can make the bread really sour if proved too long!
After shaping the dough and placing it in the banneton, how long should you wait before putting it into the fridge?
It depends. Which is the worst answer, I know.
It depends on the recipe you’re using – some call for a long proof in a banneton because they have low proportions of starter, others call for a shorter proof because of higher starter percentages. Some days your dough seems to develop more quickly and needs a shorter proof, other days, a longer proof is ok. It also depends a bit on how long you want to leave it in the fridge – longer room temp proof usually results in a shorter fridge proof, but I personally like a long cold retard – so I tend to shorten the room temp proof and stretch out the cold retard.
I kind of judge my room temp proof on the dough – it’s usually 1-2 hours. I’ve done as few as 0 hours and as many as 4. I look for the dough to grow a bit and look lighter, but I don’t want it anywhere near fully prooved because the dough takes a while to fully cool down in the fridge right into the center and it will continue to prove during that time.
All that to say, my sweet spot with most of my recipes is 1-2 hours on the counter and then 2-3 days in the fridge. Hope that helps.
Thank you! Plans changed and I won’t be able to bake the bread tomorrow that I already started this evening. Thanks to your post, I now know it will be fine in the fridge until I can bake it the day after tomorrow. Whew!
Love it! Baking sourdough is simultaneously so inflexible but also so flexible. haha. I appreciate using the fridge to really fine tune my baking to fit my busy schedule better, I’m sure you’ll love it too!