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To make the fluffiest bread at home, you need to prepare the dough for it to perfection. Although the ingredients you need are found in your pantry, including salt to taste, flour, water, yeast, sugar, and sometimes eggs, the journey from kneading to baking is not that easy. You need to ferment the dough, let it rise, and keep a check on it in between the process to ensure that it is fluffy and soft. If for any reason, you cannot bake the bread and store the dough in the refrigerator, it will tighten up, and the texture won’t be suitable for baking until you thaw it.
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Much like vegetables and meat, you should defrost the dough, or else you will be baking a fatty, fluffed, and undercooked roti compared to a fluffy and soft loaf of bread. While it seems like a piece of cake that you would keep the dough at room temperature and bake the bread, it is not that simple. Here are 10 tips that you must note if you need to thaw frozen bread dough.
Plan And Use A Sealed Container
If you are planning to bake bread using frozen dough, you must plan for it. At least a day in advance should be kept aside in preparation because you cannot defrost dough in just a few hours. You must follow a proper technique for thawing to get the required rise in the dough that will help you bake the softest loaf.
While you refrigerate the dough, you must ensure to use an airtight container or a leaf-proof plastic container. This will prevent moisture from trapping inside, destroying the texture of the dough. An airtight container will also prevent odour in the refrigerator from seeping into the dough.
Cover The Dough And Thaw At Room Temperature
One of the crucial aspects of thawing is to cover the dough, whether it is inside the refrigerator or kept on the kitchen counter. You should cover it with a plastic wrap or lid of the container to prevent it from drying out.
If you want the dough to rise quickly, defrosting at room temperature is the best idea. Keep it idle on the kitchen counter, and you will witness the dough rising. However, you must keep a check on it to ensure it does not rise too quickly or become warm, or else the taste of the bread will be ruined.
Use A Tray And Rotate The Dough
Simple science phenomena must be kept in mind while thawing. Whenever you defrost anything, condensation leads to the formation of water droplets. If you use a tray to defrost the dough in the refrigerator, you can catch the droplets on it.
You must ensure to keep rotating pieces of dough if you look to defrost an entire batch. It will ensure that each piece defrosts evenly on all sides. After a few hours, you will have a risen piece of dough that can be baked into a fluffy loaf.
Avoid Thawing In A Microwave
Much like vegetables and meat, the microwave will also start cooking bread in the process of defrosting. The outer layer will start drying up and or turn golden and hard while the centre will remain frozen.
The appliance will lead to uneven thawing, and it can lead to premature rising in the dough. You should not forget to check the dough while defrosting it in the refrigerator or at room temperature, once it is soft, it is ready to be baked in the oven.
Punch Down The Dough
You must have seen videos of bakers punching the risen dough. It releases the air and ensures that the loaf comes out even softer. If you think that the defrosted dough needs punching, you should do it gently to make sure all the air is released.
If the dough seems to have defrosted to perfection, you should stop the process or it will overproof. You can start shaping the dough into loaves and rolls. Keep them aside again so that they can rise and are ready to be baked.
