French Bread Dough

[JackiRD]

I have a recipe I want to make that calls for frozen French bread dough. All that I could find in the local grocery stores was French bread rolls, and they're not going to work. So now I am planning to make my own French bread dough. It is made with yeast and so, of course, will rise while setting out. The recipe is for a breakfast calzone and says to prepare the calzone the night before and refrigerate (before baked) overnight. My question is if the dough will continue to rise and expand while it sets in the refrigerator over night. Also, if I do not plan to make the whole recipe at once, can I freeze or refrigerate my dough to keep until I am ready to use it? Thank you!

[CM]

I would make the dough the night before. The next morning, let the batch rise, then punch it down. If you want to freeze half of the dough at this point (after it's risen once), then wrap it up excluding as much air as possible and freeze the half you won't use.

Use the other half to assemble the calzone. Let rise after you've assembled it (I know that some recipes don't call for rising after it's been assembled, but I always allow it a second rise so that the dough won't be heavy and will bake better). After the dough appears to have risen well (almost double but not quite - no matter how long it takes), bake as your recipe calls for.

There's really no need for the overnight process. If you want to make a calzone in one day, start early and/or use Rapid-rise yeast.

If you are in a hurry a bread machine can help, too, because it has a warm environment for the rising and eliminates delays when you're not paying attention. Most recipes can be made in the bread machine if you divide them in half and add the ingredients as the bread machine manual calls for them to be added. Mine is a Zojurishi and the liquids are added at the bottom (I add the salt to the liquids even though the manual calls for them to be added later because salt will kill the yeast if it comes in contact with it). Next goes the flour, butter, and any additions, then make a well in the center of the flour and add the yeast. Set the controls for the dough cycle.

A proofing function in your oven can speed things along, too. Sometimes I microwave dough for a few minutes and this works well but if you overdo it can kill the yeast so you need to be very careful with this method.