Resting Lebkuchen dough overnight - OK? Fridge or room temp?
We've got a few questions about resting dough but most relate to yeast-based baking. I'm interested in a dough using baking powder. I've been looking at lebkuchen recipes, and many want the dough to be rested e.g. BBC recipe: an hour. I understand this will make the dough roll out better and hold its shape on baking. These are both good things.
Is there any downside to resting it overnight? I want to cut out and bake them in the morning, then decorate them later the same day. I could keep the dough at room temperature or in the fridge - which would be better?
Best Answer
The recipie I use from my grandmother says to put it in the fridge directly after making the dough, and leave it there for a minimum of one night. Two is better. The liquid ingredients should be allowed to cool to room temperature before mixing in the dry ingredients. The cookies often taste even better a few days after baking as the flavours mingle and mellow. I'm not sure about the recipie you're using, but I'm pretty it means the batch makes 50 cookies. I know my recipie certainly makes a lot, though I've never sat down and counted the exact amount.
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Quick Answer about "Resting Lebkuchen dough overnight - OK? Fridge or room temp?"
The recipie I use from my grandmother says to put it in the fridge directly after making the dough, and leave it there for a minimum of one night. Two is better. The liquid ingredients should be allowed to cool to room temperature before mixing in the dry ingredients.Does Lebkuchen dough need to rest?
It is inactive in the dough until the cookies are baked. Even if the dough rests in the fridge for several month..Can I leave my dough at room temperature overnight?
Dough that's left to rise at room temperature typically takes between two and four hours to double in size. If left overnight, dough rises so high forcing it will likely collapse on the weight of itself, making the dough deflate. For best results always keep dough in the refrigerator when leaving to rise overnight.Does Lebkuchen need to be refrigerated?
Allow the dough to "ripen" at cool room temperature for 1 to 2 days - do not refrigerate. (The large amount of honey and sugar will keep bacteria at bay.)What is the purpose of resting the dough in the refrigerator?
Put simply, retarding dough is the process of slowing down the final rising in the bread-making process. This is easily done by proofing bread overnight in the refrigerator since the cold slows down the rise. It has its benefits, including adding flavor and allowing you to bake the bread at a later time.Let cold-proofed sourdough come up to room temperature before baking?
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Answer 2
Note to self : Make sure to read the answer carefully, and follow the link. (maybe I saw the mention of yeast in the question, and didn't see he had said he knew how to deal with yeast).
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Chemical reactions will slow at colder temperatures, but I have no idea by how much, or if it even applies in this case. The chemical reaction would've happened quickly, assuming the baking powder was mixed in well and I suspect it's that you need the dough to relax some ... which would be inhibited by the fridge, but if that's the case, you'd have to let the dough warm back up again (which might be 30 min or so, defeating much of the point of this)
Although they do call for putting the dough in the fridge for a few minutes if it's too sticky, that is significantly different from letting it get cold all the way through.
I wouldn't try to leave it to rest out of the fridge, because the air will slowly escape, deflating the dough. This is less a problem with double-acting baking powder, as it'll release more gas when it's heated.
If the situation is that you have some time now, but not enough, and you'll have more time later -- then I'd mix up the dry ingredients now. You could also cook the butter/sugar mix, but you'd want to put that back into the fridge and re-heat it later (maybe a low microwave?). When ready, mix the eggs into the dry stuff and add the butter/sugar blend.
(and in reading the recipe -- I don't know if "Serves 1 - 50 Cookies" means that one person will eat all 50 cookies, or that you could make one large cookie or 50 small ones)
Original (bad) answer follows:
I frequently let things rise in the fridge overnight or while I'm at work (or both), when the recipes call for leaving it 'until doubled'.
I typically put it in a container about 3 to 4 times larger than the volume of dough, loosely lidded, with something heavy on top of it (in case it tries to rise so much it comes out of the container).
When you take it out of the fridge, you may need to let it warm back up a little bit, as it can cause things to be a little bit stiffer than it would have been at room temperature.
I would not leave it out at room temperature, as it would ferment much more than called for in the recipe.
Answer 3
I can't be absolutely certain as plans changed and I didn't leave it overnight in the end, but the dough in question was very forgiving once it had cooled down to room temperature (it had to put up with a lot of rerolling).
It definitely needed the rest as after assembling all the ingredients it was runny and not at all rollable. After 3 hours at a cool room temperature it was easy to roll and cut. I think that it would need to come back up to room temperature if rested in the fridge, or it would crack when rolled.
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