I’ve tried making bread at various times and it has worked fairly well, but it tends to give me indigestion, so I never perservere with it. I seem to remember reading that the longer the bread is proven for, the easier it is to digest. Is this true? I was thinking about leaving it overnight for the final proving, but would I leave it in a warm or cool place? And is it likely to “over-rise” and collapse over the edge of the tin? Any help would be appreciated - thanks!

I’m not sure on the digestion thing, but I know that every single time I make bread I forget about it and it overflows and collapses - it’s fine if you knock it back again and bake it. That’s a couple of hours, though, not overnight. If it’s in a warm place, it tends to get a crusty bit on top which doesn’t combine back in properly - our house is really cold though, so it’s usually ok.

Hth xx

I let mine rise for up to 4 times, and I have left it overnight in the fridge before.  Rub a wee drop oil over it and cover with a plastic bag and it should be fine.

I often leave mine overnight in the fridge but I do knock it back and prove it before baking. If you leave it to prove at room temp over night it’ll be HUGE by the morning

If you do leave it to rise for too long without knocking it back afterwards, it does taste a bit horrible and (obviously) has *lots* of holes! If you intend to leave it overnight I would personally leave it somewhere cool.

Angie

Ok, so it sounds as if it would be best to prove it overnight, then knock it back and prove again before baking, so it gets the long proving time first, then a normal one to retain the shape. Will try that - thanks!

ComiNg in on the digestion part, if you make a sourdough loaf the slow, natural fermentation breaks down phytic acid (which is the part people find hard to digest ).

Hth

What Starchild said - sourdough is the way forward! Also quite good fun with children, as you can make the starter and feed it over a few days before using it, and then you can keep it in the fridge and feed it when you’re going to need to bake again… Have an easy recipe if you’re interested?

Thanks Starchild and Earthenwitch. A friend has started making sourdough and it does sound really good but I don’t think T would go for the taste of it. Sadly he loves the awful supermarket white baguette-type stuff (which I don’t buy but he has had a few times) so I want to wean him onto homemade by starting with a fairly bland white bread, perhaps with wheatgerm added, so at least it isn’t full of chemicals and it’s made with organic flour.

I often make white rolls for the weekend. I make them on a Friday night. Leave dough in the bowl to rise in a warm place then shape into rolls on an oven tray and leave whole thing in fridge overnight covered in oiled clingfilm. I bake them straight from the fridge in the morning. I tend to put in quite a bit of olive oil so they are a bit like ciabatta rolls, very soft and spongy and dd loves them. In the morning my rolls have usually joined together, but after cooking they can just be torn apart along the joins. Seem to last well for cooked things in for breakfast and then rolls at lunchtime for saturday and sunday.

That sounds great, thanks Flower