Dough rising in the fridge...Did you ever try?

[Inge 1505]

I read several times and did try 2 or three times to let bread dough rise in the fridge. You follow the recipe until the kneading is done and dough left to rise. You then put it in a sufficiently large covered container in the fridge and let it rise for 8-12 hours. The idea is that yeast is sensitive to too much heat, but not to cold, it will only rise much, much slower!
So you prepare the dough in the evening, and in the morning you take it from the fridge, form it into rolls or whatever and let it rise in a warm place another 45-60 minutes before baking.
I initially thought this would enable me to rise later and have fresh rolls for breakfast nevertheless, but only found that I had less work in the morning, but that the rising took rather a long time for the cold dough.
The reason I tried again, was that I read the texture of the dough would be finer due to the smaller bubbles forming in the cold! Couldn't say that I found a difference myself, but perhaps one of you did?
Third time I tried was making a pizza dough in the morning, putting it in fridge and serving pizza for dinner, flattened dough rose in a reasonable time

So you see I don't have a bread machine which would solve the time problem with yeast dough for me, but it is just not reasonable for me to have one because I am German and can buy 60+ sorts of good quality bread and rolls at one of the 5 bakery's in my vicinity for everyday use, but I like to try something special on occasion.

Do you have experience with dough in the fridge? Did you find it time saving? How long did your dough need to rise the second time? What about taste and texture? Would like to know of somebody else's experiences!

[Donna M.]

I have done it infrequently, but I don't find it to be a timesaver. It does improve the taste and texture of the finished product. I have, on occasion, taken the bowl of dough out of the fridge and then floated it in a larger bowl of very warm water to speed up the process. It all seemed like a lot of bother to me.

Another thing I have read, but haven't tried, is with sourdough to shape the loaf and then let it rise in the fridge overnight. In the morning you pull it out and let it continue rising until it is double, then bake as usual. It supposedly develops the sourdough flavor for a more sour bread.

[Marg (CaymanDesigns)]

I've done it when I knew I'd need fresh bread in the morning but wouldn't have the time for whole process & didn't want to bake it the night before. I felt for that situation it worked great.

[Zewbiedoo]

I have done this with cinnamon rolls with good results.

Glazed Cinnamon Rolls - Bread Machine #99272

[Inge 1505]

Thank you all for your input
I think I will experiment some more.