How-To Freezing Bread Dough

Why should you freeze your dough? Well there are many reasons. The mixing process can some times be time consuming, so it is nice to be able to mix enough dough to make several loaves of bread at once and freeze what you don't use that day for another day. This allows you to pull out a frozen loaf and bake it with out having to go though the mixing process again for a while.

We recommend using a high quality kitchen mixer, like the Bosch Universal Plus Mixer, which can make enough dough for up-to nine loaves of bread at once (note: search YouTube.com for "bosch 9 loaves video" for a demonstration). This will get you several loaves of bread dough to freeze with the least amount of work. Mix and knead bread dough until it is ready to rise, but don't leave it out to rise.

Wheat Bread

Once the dough is mixed and kneaded you will want to shape it and then freeze it immediately, do not let it rise before putting in the freezer. When freezing dough for a loaf of bread, I find it best to place the dough in a lightly greased pan while freezing it. This will insure that it will fit in the pan you will be baking the loaf in when you are ready to cook it.

After the dough is frozen, it is time to package it. You can remove it from the pan after it is frozen or you can just package the pan and dough together if you feel like it, it may save you some time. To package it, place the frozen dough in a 1 gallon zip-lock freezer bag or use a kitchen vacuum sealer like the VacMaster Pro 130. If you are placing multiple loaves of bread in one package, it is best to use something like wax paper to keep them separated at thawing time.

Frozen dough will keep in the freezer for about 3 months or less. To de-thaw the bread dough, remove it from freezer package and place it in a lightly greased pan. Now cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap, the thawing will take a while and this will keep the dough from drying out. Set the pan on the counter and allow it to come to room temperature and then rise to double its size. This part of the process is going to take most of the day, so be patient with it and plan ahead for it. It is best to start this in the morning so you can cook it later that evening.

You may now bake and enjoy your loaf of bread. Remove the plastic and place the pan in the oven for what ever the recipe cook time calls for. Remember that when making home made whole wheat bread, it is best to do it with freshly milled whole wheat flour using a quality electric or hand wheat grinder.

How-To Freezing Bread Dough

We at WonderMill Grain Mills hope you have found this article useful and thank you for your time.

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