Cooking For Engineers

[opqdan]

I finally got a stand mixer that I can use to knead my bread dough, so I have entered the wonderfull world of making my own bread.

I was wondering whether I can freeze the dough at some point and then thaw and cook it later. Obviously, this is somehow possible, as I can go to the store and buy frozen bread dough, but at what point in the process do I freeze, and what are the steps for thawing?

From what a Google search tells me, it looks like I should let it rise, "punch" it down, and shape it, then freeze at this point. Is this probably the best way to do it?

When removing the dough from the freezer, should I let it thaw in the refridgerator in order to retard a second rise until the whole thing is thawed? I worry that setting out the frozen bread will cause a weird second rise as the bread will still be frozen in the center when the outside wakes up.

Along the same lines, what about the yeast? Freezing shouldn't really kill them all (I've frozen brewers yeast before, and it still fermented), so figure I should be fine in that area, but do I need to use active dry, or is instand or rapid rise okay?

I figure I could easily do a couple experiments to find out, but I want to know if any of you guys/gals freeze your bread dough.

Thank you.

[Lintballoon]

I have frozen bread dough many times. I put it in a plastic zip lock and squeeze the air out. I use a big enough bag so that it can expand - sometimes the dough continues to rise very, very slowly even though its in the freezer, or subsequently the fridge.
I usually make dough for pizza, and freeze it before letting it do a full first rise.
Then I only rise it once, since like I said I am doing pizza.

[otrpu]

I usually spray cooking oil in the bag. Makes for a less sticky situation after thawing.

Cheers,
OTRPU