A few questions about adjusting timing windows with refrigeration, and baking around a 9-5 work life ? Breadit

I've been baking for a few weeks now, following the schedules + timelines in FWSY perfectly and everything has turned out great so far. Now I want to lengthen some of the steps in some recipies (notably the levain breads) to be able to bake them during the weekdays more easily.

I've already shifted the recipies for the pre-ferment breads (mixing early AM->fermenting while at work->baking late at night; instead of mixing in the evening->fermenting overnight->bake in morning) Here's how I usually do it, and have been happy so far.

4:00 AM - Generally I wake up and mix the pre-ferment at 4am, go back to bed, and allow it to ferment for 12-14 hours (so it will be ready a bit after I come home from work).

5-6:00 PM - mix the rest of the dough, and allow for bulk fermentation over the next 2-4 hours based on recipe, applying folds as needed

9:00 PM - divide the dough in two and put in proofing baskets, allow to proof ~1 hour depending on recipe and poke test

9:30 PM - I only have 1 dutch oven, so I put one banneton in the fridge to retard proofing at this point

10:00 PM - bake first loaf

11:00 PM bake second loaf, straight from fridge to hot dutch oven

This is all possible because of the 12-14hr fermentation during work, and the remaining steps being short enough (<6 hours) to finish after work and before bed. I'd love to be able to proof overnight and quickly bake in the morning (I take my bread into work each day for coworkers) but I don't know if its ok to stretch the proof period that long.

The levain recipes have less-friendly times listed, that usually involve feeding the starter, mixing 6-7 hours later, and with various other steps spaced out such that it doesn't work well with having to be away for work for 10 hours. Here's one of the timelines for one of the overnight levain breads I saw on a website:

FWSY: Overnight Country Brown

2:55PM Mix leaven (water=65F)
9:25PM Autolyse (flour + 85F water)
9:55PM Add salt and levain for Final mix
10:05PM Bulk fermentation starts (Initial DT=81F) at 69F
7:05AM Bulk fermentation ends (Final DT=76F)
7:05AM Shape the loaf (without bench rest)
7:15AM Final proof starts (initial 1.5 hours at 71F room temperature, then 20 minutes in the refrigerator)
9:05AM Final proof ends
8:20AM Oven on @475F
9:05AM Baking (30 min. with the lid, 20 min. without the lid)
9:55AM Take out the loaf from the oven

Does anyone have experience with how to work something like this during a weekday, and preferably without interrupting sleep too much? I'm willing to get up once or twice, but (like anyone!) would prefer not to.

Does refrigerating during the proofing step completely pause development? Or does it slow development by a certain %? (Imagine a proof time of 1 hr at room temp, would it develop the same amount in 2 hours in the fridge? 3? 4?) And if it proofing is "paused" in the fridge, time cooling down and warming back up has to have a slowing effect as well, right?

I've only seen retarding the proofing stage in the fridge before, but is it ok/possible to retard the pre-ferment or bulk fermentation steps?

How do you like to fit baking to your schedule?

Thanks for all the help!

Submitted February 26, 2016 at 01:24AM by captain_o http://ift.tt/1p9uvEC Breadit