The preparation of bread can be quite time consuming, with our current busy schedules it can be impossible to have the time to prepare bread dough from scratch as frequently as you want. To help with this I normally make twice as much dough as I need and freeze the rest. The process to make this successful is pretty easy but I will walk through it quickly.
First prepare your favorite bread dough recipe as you normally would (mixing, kneading, rising, etc) After the first time the bread has risen take the bread you want to freeze and knead and separate into equal sized balls.
One thing I like to do is to simply take these and place them into individual sandwich bags and push out any excess air.
Then add these bags to a larger freezer bag and remove individual bags when you have an inkling for some fresh baked bread. One other option is to create several one inch balls and add to single layer within a freezer bag. These can be defrosted and used to make fresh baked rolls
Baking bread with frozen bread dough
Take the frozen bread dough and place into a greased bread pan. Spray top of frozen bread dough and top with plastic wrap. Let the bread dough defrost and rise (6 – 8 hours) and then remove the plastic wrap and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees and enjoy.
Permalink //
Just curious – why would you freeze the dough? You could bake all the bread at the same time and then freeze the extra loaves. Then you only have to turn on the oven once to make up to five loaves, which saves energy. It's also easier to just pull a loaf out of the freezer the night before you need it than to bake it.
Permalink //
Cassandra, I agree baking all four loaves is definitely more energy efficient. In my case though I only have two bread pans and limited freezer space.
I also enjoy the smell of bread rising/baking and those nice warm slices of fresh baked bread definitely taste better.
This time of year we also make one of our family favorite’s “Sausage Bread”, which you can prepare and freeze though much better when made fresh.
Permalink //
What I am having problems with is the death of my yeast.. Sometimes for some reason, after years of freezing the bread dough it will NOT rise!! And I can't figure out what I am doing wrong???!!! Any ideas??
Permalink //
After a certain amount of time in the freezer, the yeast looses it’s kick and will no longer make the dough rise. It’s best to make only enough dough as you can use without having to freeze it for to long. But as it has been stated here, Freshly baked bread is so much better, but if you really do not have the time to make it for the same day then freezing the dough is a good idea, but do not leave it in the freezer for more than 3 months, after that it may not rise anymore. I have had this problem myself and have realized that 3 months of freezing is ok, but no longer. Hope this has helped.