Freezing Sourdough

Well, it worked spectacularly well!

This week, I made too much starter. In anticaption of baking, I built up the sourdough. (I had somehow neglected to save any the last time I baked, so I had no storage starter in the fridge. So, I had to start it up again from dry. I now keep splenty of dry in the freezer.)

Anyway, I had also run out of wheat, so by the time I’d replaced the wheat, I had too much starter. And not wanting to throw any away, I decided to make it all into dough.

That was a lot of dough!

Since I didn’t have time to bake it all up, I decided to experiment with freezing the dough. After all, if the commercial dough makers can do it, why can’t I?

I didn’t let it rise; I formed it into balls of dough for free form loaves and froze it in the deep freeze outside.

Today, we decided we wanted some garlic rolls to go along with our pizza tonight. We pulled the dough out of the freezer and put it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet in the oven with the light on. This afternoon, Wendy brought it too my sister’s house. It had doubled in size, rising just fine and just as well as fresh dough. Whew! I kneaded it down a bit and we formed it into little balls and put it in greased cake rounds. I put it in the oven to proof again. (My sister’s oven has a proofing setting that is way, way warm. Dough rises quickly.) Once risen, we melted a stick of butter and mixed in prepared (not fresh) garlic. We baked it 20 minutes at 350F.

The rolls were just fine! Very dense — I probably could have let it rise a little longer, but it’s certainly not failed bread.

So, now I know that the rest of the dough still in the freezer is going to be just fine. Next time I need a fresh loaf of bread, the dough is ready! Awesome!