lpm@lanl.ARPA (04/26/85)
Dummy that I am, I lost Meg's address, so this is a reply to her. The rest of you can skip it. Sorry, all. Meg, Thanks for the reply. I will try to answer some of your yeast questions. I think that the second rise takes about the normal length of time after I put it in the fridge. Then, though, it almost stops rising. I think that it just takes that long to cool off, so it is still warm while the rise occurs; I do not think it will rise very much at 40 degrees F, or whatever your fridge temp. is. I think that you could even let it rise the first time in the fridge if it was nice and warm when you put it in. But then the second rise would take longer, since it would have to warm up be- fore it began to rise. You could not let both rises occur in the fridge; after the first one it would be so cool that the second one would not happen (at least, not very fast). I guess you could warm it up after the first rise, punch it down, and let it rise in the fridge again, though. Perhaps what you could do is start it in the evening and let it rise once, shape it, and put it in the fridge. Then, the next evening (or morning if you were home), take it out of the fridge, let it warm up while the oven is heating (it will be risen), and bake it. If it has risen too much, you will have to punch it down and let it rise a third time. The third rising will give it a finer texture anyway; it will not hurt it a bit, although it might make the bread a bit less sweet (not much). You can also freeze bread dough. The technique is to let it rise once and shape it; put the shaped bread in the freezer. Then take it out, let it rise, and bake it. The Sunset Breads cookbook describes this technique, and it works really well for rolls. The rise from the freezer takes longer, of course. One other thing. When I bake whole wheat bread and let it rise in the fridge, moisture condenses on the top of the dough. Water on the crust makes the crust tough (like french bread), and the whole grain crust is already tougher than white bread, so I get a huge air bubble between the crust and the body of bread. That just looks odd is all, but be warned. Oil on the crust tender- izes it; perhaps brushing oil on it before the rise would solve the problem; I have never tried that. Play with rising conditions; it is almost impossible to ruin yeast bread unless you get the dough too hot (do not let it rise next to the oven vent when the oven is at normal baking temp's; I have ruined two batches that way.) Thanks for the info on cholesterol and phosphorous; I had not even considered the kidney stone problem. My dog is 9 now, and, though she still acts like a puppy, I want to think about keeping her healthy. Laurie McGavran