overnight rising

Last night I tried a new technique for rising a dough- instead of having it in a warm place for 1-2 hours, I left in in the fridge overnight. Obviously it's much slower with the cold fridge, but it has lots of time while I'm sleeping. It worked somewhat-but it only rose about half as much as I'd like, so I still have to let it sit out for a while.

I might still be able to salvage a decent loaf out of it if I can get it to do it's second rising up to par. Also I won't split it in two this time, I'm going to dedicate it all to one loaf.

Also I made pasta (just whole wheat flour, water, olive oil) last night, so now we have 4 and 1/2 portions in the fridge, each portion a generous amount for two people. It actually only took about 5 minutes to make the dough, then let rest for 15, then roll into sheets (about 1/2 hour), then cut into strips (about 15 min) then let dry for ~hour before dividing into portions and freezing. I think next time I want to try making some flavors, like black pepper or spinach. I have a little crank roller that I use for this, btw. It looks like this:


First you roll it into sheets as above and then use the attachment on the other side to cut into strips. You can make it by hand too, by rolling it with a pin and cutting it manually but I have no desire to really try that.

Does anyone else out there spend their weekends making food from scratch? ::sighs::