Comments on: Build Your Own Dough Retarder

By: binance алдым-ау

binance алдым-ау — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 18:14:47 +0000

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By: binance

binance — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 15:48:11 +0000

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By: Jesse

Jesse — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:11:26 +0000

Hey Maurizio, thanks for this guide!

I just purchased thePenn Digital Thermo and the Frigidaire upright freezer in order to build your setup. Temp wise, it works great! But the Frigidaire beeps every time it turns back on (it's pretty loud). So there's a pretty regular chirping.

I reached out to Frigidaire and they didn't have any advice on how to disable the audio alert. Did you encounter this problem at all, and if so do you have a fix for it?

By: binance Kayit Ol

binance Kayit Ol — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 15:43:22 +0000

I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.

By: Rocco

Rocco — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 02:07:39 +0000

In reply to Maurizio Leo. I agree with you. I di sort of the test and my impression is that the bread that has not cold fermented had a more significant oven spring but sort of "flat" flavor while the cold fermented had better tasty flavor but less oven spring. My fridge is very cold; it ha e feature that when you put something in it tested for temp and boost to reach quickly 4°. I should maybe try put the dough on higher fridge shelf. Thanks!!

By: Maurizio Leo

Maurizio Leo — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 19:17:58 +0000

In reply to Rocco.

For me, a cold-proofed dough ends up having more pronounced sour flavor. Yes, agreed, the home fridge is a little too cold for the best results—but!—keep in mind the dough takes time to cool down to those temps. During that time, it passes through “optimal” temps and fermentation does continue. Eventually, it’ll reach fridge temp and stall out (mostly), but again, there’s quite a bit of time in there.

It’s easy to do a test in your kitchen. Make a double batch, bake one direct (ambient proofed), bake one retarded. Taste the difference!

To be clear, I LOVE both methods, and I do both often depending on what I’m after, and yeah, when I need more time, I retard 🙂

By: Rocco

Rocco — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 09:22:08 +0000

sounds to me that cold retarding (in the fridge) is still something controversial. ANDREW JANJIGIAN in his blog recently wrote a post (https://newsletter.wordloaf.org/p/continuous-sourdough-starter-maintenance) where highlights the cons of maintaining sourdough starter in the fridge and replying to my comment where i said that thus for the same reasons we should not retard the dough in the fridge (like most if not all of the books state) he wrote: “Retarding at fridge temps is actually not ideal for the same reasons, which is why bakers with retarder-proofers often set it to 55F or so, which is on the low end of the ideal temperature range for sourdough fermentations.”
(…)
“I retard many of my breads, but only out of convenience, not because it is “better” (it isn’t). Bakeries do it because it allows space between shaping and baking, and the ability to stagger bakes from a single batch. A room temperature final proof will generally give you better oven spring; choosing to retard or not is a compromise between convenience and results.” And when I replied that many bakers and book writers think tat cold retarding will improve flavors, he replied: “I think same day bakes are better, yes! Chilling the exterior of the loaf can help with cleaner scoring, so one approach I like is to proof the loaf until ~75% expanded, then move it to the fridge while the oven/pot heats up.”
Your thoughts?
Thanks!

By: Maurizio Leo

Maurizio Leo — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 16:56:27 +0000

In reply to Lee Edwards. Check out my schedules on the Guides page for how to do this!

By: Maurizio Leo

Maurizio Leo — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 16:56:07 +0000

In reply to Laura. That's a fantastic temp there, Laura! I used to use a WF like this as well (until I grew out of the space!).

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 16:16:44 +0000

Very informative, as always. I have a wine refrigerator that can be set as low as 46F. I often place my loaves in this wine cellar for final proofing. Just a suggestion for others who may have one as well.

P.S. It’s also a great place to keep potatoes. I live in Florida where it is too hot to leave them out.