Why (and how to) do a slow rise
Even if you’re not doing sourdough baking at home, you can learn about the benefits of slow rising doughs and use that to your benefit to make tastier and healthier bread with commercial yeast!
Leaving space for exciting processes
Would you like to listen to the podcast version instead of reading this article? Find it here!
We’re back on bread, people! Again! But you’re going to love this; today I am sharing why a lazier bread baking method is better for both the taste and for our gut. And then when you’ve learned all about it, go check out my no knead overnight bread - bread baking literally doesn’t get easier than this, and you end up with a freshly baked loaf at the start of your day.
Anyway, back to today’s topic: slow rise. We may not know all the ins and outs of it (don’t worry too much about that!), but most of us know that fermented food, like sourdough, is good for us and good for our gut. And yes, sourdough certainly qualifies as a slow rising dough - if you’ve followed (or even skimmed through) my sourdough articles, YouTube videos or podcast episodes, you will know that in certain cases, a sourdough bread dough can take up to 12 hours to rise! But, as I’ve also mentioned in my article and podcast episode “why I poured my sourdough starter down the sink”, sourdough is not for all seasons of life. And I am currently in a season where I bake bread using active dry yeast from the supermarket. And I am still super happy with the result. And the great news is, we can use the knowledge about fermentation and slow rising to our benefit even with the “simpler” way of baking bread, and end up with super tasty bread that doesn’t leave us feeling bloated and uncomfortable.
Why do a slow rise?
So let’s look at why letting your bread (or baguette, or roll) dough rise slowly is beneficial:
The taste. A slow rise gives the yeast more time to work. It starts consuming the sugars in the dough and produces complex flavour compounds, taking on a more sourdough-like flavour; a richer and deeper taste.
Breaking down of gluten. A longer fermentation process helps break down gluten, making the bread easier to digest for us. So if you have a mild gluten sensitivity, this might do absolute wonders for you (by the way; don’t just think you “can’t have bread” as a blanket statement if all you’ve ever had and reacted to was shop-bought bread. It has lots of yeast and rises for as short a period as possible, not to mention preservatives and other unnecessary ingredients that make us react badly to them. Avoid, by try real bread and have it change your life!)
Producing prebiotics. When a dough does a slow rise, the yeast also produces prebiotics. We’ll look closer at prebiotics some other time I’m sure, but they are in short food for the beneficial bacteria in your gut, and contribute to a healthier microbiome.
Better texture. The slow fermentation allows the starches in the dough to break down more fully. This creates a softer, moister crumb and a chewier texture, even for commercial yeast bread.
It stays nicer for longer! The acids that are produced during a slow rise will act as natural preservatives, so the bread you’ve put the effort into making will stay fresh for a longer period than it otherwise would. That’s encouraging!
So though sourdough's unique bacteria and longer fermentation provide the most significant benefits, a slow rise with commercial yeast can still offer a noticeable improvement in flavour, digestibility, and nutritional value compared to a fast-rise method.
Okay, I’m convinced… so how do I do a slow rise?!
So now that we know this, how do we let our bread rise slowly? It’s pretty simple really; cold water and less yeast, oh - and little to no kneading. You will learn about all of these (water temperature, yeast amount and kneading) in my YouTube video “10 Tips for Perfect Bread”, but basically all of these three factors decide how quickly the gluten in the bread starts activating and working. So if we want to slow that process down, we need to actually make it harder for the dough to get this process going - that’s when we get all the benefits mentioned above!
So simply:
Use cold water (and/or milk or other liquids) in the dough
Cut down on the amount of yeast you put in
Avoid kneading the bread as much as possible, rather just mix the ingredients well together and then leave it in a bowl
So again, if you want to bring all of this into practice, try my no knead overnight bread, and let me know how it went in the comments (or share your delicious looking loaves on social media and tag me!)
