Shelf · Dough & batter · No heat
Cold proofing
Moving the dough to the fridge and letting it ferment slowly for eight to twenty-four hours instead of one.
- The temperature band
- In the fridge · 2 to 5 °C
- The time
- About 720 min
Why it works
Cold slows yeast far more than it slows the bacteria and enzymes alongside it. Gas production nearly stops while flavour production carries on, so a long cold rise buys depth and a faintly sour complexity that a fast warm rise never develops.
The tell
It rises perhaps half as much as a warm proof but the surface goes bubbly and the smell turns distinctly winey rather than simply yeasty.
- Flat
- Doubled, domed
- Collapsed
How it fails
Cold dough straight from the fridge into a hot oven has no oven spring left in it — let it come back toward room temperature and finish rising first. Cover it well, or the surface dries into a skin that will not stretch.
In the app, the card opens on the recipe step that names it, with the tell drawn.
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