Have you ever heard before 10 hours proofed sandwich bread recipe or overnight proofed sandwich bread in the fridge? Why should I ferment my bread dough for a long 10 to 12 hours if the whole process of bread baking can be completed in 3 hours maximum? Well, sometimes after kneading the dough, you get a call from your friend that she needs your help and you just can’t say no! Or we get a reminder message from the phone that today you had your long awaited appointment with the doctor and can’t afford to miss it. Our daily routine also is so hectic sometimes with multiple chores to finish in the day that we are not able to keep a careful watch on the bread dough and it gets over proofed.
Personally, I don’t like over proofed dough as it gives a strong yeasty smell to bread. So to avoid any such situation, we can proof the dough in the fridge with our convenience for an entire day or night and bake it after 10 to 12 hours. That’s how we will get 10 Hours Proofed Sandwich Bread.
Just in case if you have any doubts about the quality of bread after 10 hours of proofing in the cold temperature of fridge (which is quite contrary to the normal proofing done at a warm place), I will show you the picture of bread and then let you decide if still you are having second thoughts to try this 10 hours overnight proofed sandwich bread recipe.
I loved this simple long proofed bread and honestly speaking, there are no specific technical details needed to try this recipe.
The only thing which you have to take care of is not to add more yeast to the flour.
Remember, that because of the cold temperature of the fridge, fermentation process slows down but it is continuously happening. It will just take longer than proofing the dough in warm temperature.
So no need to worry about the proofing part. Rest of the process is same. After 10 to 12 hours take out the dough from the fridge, let it rest for half an hour so that it can come on to room temperature. Later deflate it, knead it a bit, roll it in a shape of loaf, keep it in the bread tin, cover it for second proofing and then bake – that’s it!!!
So, now if you have a busy schedule also, you can still bake a home-baked sandwich bread for your family.
Just in case you are a newbie in bread baking and not comfortable with this 10 hours fermentation process, you can still try this recipe without keeping the dough in the fridge and follow the normal bread baking process. I have a few more sandwich bread posts – you can check them also…
White Sandwich Bread(1) with active dry yeast
White Flour Sandwich Bread(4) cylindrical shaped
Wheat flour Sandwich Bread(3) cylindrical shaped
For complete tips on bread baking check the following post and if you still have any questions please feel free to ask…
Basics of baking – bread/buns/rolls (Wheat flour buns with pizza spices-2)
Ingredients :
White flour (maida) 3 cups
Milk powder 1/4 cup
Instant active yeast 1 tsp
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 1+1/2 tbsp
Oil/butter 2 tbsp
Water 1+1/2 cup (reduce or increase as per requirement)
Bread tin size: width: 10 inch height: 3 inch depth 4 inch
Points to remember :
- Except water, all ingredients should be on room temperature.
- Water should be slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot.
- Dough might dry up a bit inside the fridge – so to keep the moisture as is, I have used slightly more water than usual to knead the dough. But never follow the water quantity blindly as written in the recipe – just knead the dough slightly more wet than usual and of course as per the absorbing quality of your flour.
Process :
Collect all dry ingredients in a big vessel.
Slowly start pouring water and collecting dry ingredients together in the shape of a dough. Don’t worry about loose or tight consistency of dough at this stage.
Now start pouring remaining water 1 tbsp at a time and knead the dough for 12-15 minutes by adding oil/butter simultaneously.
Initially, kneading will look a lot messy, but slowly dough will become smooth.
Keep the dough in an oil greased bowl for first proofing (bowl should be big enough to have extra space for doubled up dough). Apply some oil on top of the dough to avoid it drying up. Cling wrap the bowl with 3-4 layers and keep it in the fridge overnight for first proofing .
In the morning, grease the bread tin and its cover (if using tin with cover) with oil.
After 10 /12 hours take out the dough bowl from the fridge and let it rest for half an hour so that it can come to room temperature.
Sprinkle some flour on clean kitchen counter or grease it with oil. Take out the dough and deflate it softly.
Knead the dough very gently to make it smooth and spread it in a rectangular shape according to the size of the bread tin. Roll it tightly in the shape of the log.
Seal the sides by pinching them.
Keep the log in your ready bread tin by keeping the seam side down. Apply some oil/butter to it, cover it and keep it for second proofing for 20 to 30 minutes.
Just 10 minutes before the baking, preheat your oven at 185-190 degrees for 10 minutes. Give milk wash to the proofed dough and bake it in a preheated oven at the same temperature for 35 to 40 minutes or till the top of the bread starts becoming brown. You can tap on top of the bread – if it sounds hollow, bread is done!!
If you are using bread tin with cover, then uncover the lid after 35-40 minutes and bake on medium rack with top rod on and with fan for 5-7 minutes more. This extra time will be helpful in getting nice brown colour. Be careful – keep an eye on the baking as you don’t want the top of the bread to turn dark brown.
Temperature of every oven varies – so you should be careful and judge the baking time as per your experience.
Take out the tin from the oven, keep it on a cooling rack and apply butter on the top to keep it soft.
After 5-7 minutes clean the edges of the tin with a knife and take out the bread from the tin and let it cool down completely on the cooling rack. Don’t leave the bread for a long time in the bread tin. The heat of hot bread will turn it soggy from the bottom.
Later cling wrap the loaf and keep it in the fridge for 4 to 5 hours.
Though you can slice the bread once it cools down completely, but keeping in the fridge will settle down its crumbs and you will get amazing slices while cutting with serrated knife!!!
