Baguettes are a great lunch option and can be enhanced with so many delicious fillings, be it coronation chicken, tuna mayo, or something a little more exotic. But if youāre making a batch of baguettes, you might be wondering how best to preserve them.
Can You Freeze Baguette Dough?
Yes, you can freeze baguette dough. You will need to roll the dough into shape before flash freezing and wrapping it. Provided itās protected from freezer burn, your baguette dough will be good in the freezer for at least 4 months before you need to bake it.
Do Does Baguette Dough freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Baguette Dough? No
How to Freeze Baguette Dough
The good news is that freezing baguette dough is nice and straightforward. Regardless of the recipe that you follow, you can freeze your dough as soon as itās ready by following the simple steps listed below:
- Prepare the Dough: Choose a recipe to follow and prepare your baguette dough as instructed. Once you have a ball of dough, separate it into appropriate sizes for each baguette.Ā
- Flash Freeze: Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and place each piece of baguette dough on top, ensuring theyāre well spaced out. Then, place the tray in the freezer for a few hours until the dough has frozen solid.Ā
- Wrap: Remove the tray from the freezer and wrap each piece of dough individually. Itās best to do this in tin foil, making sure the dough is wrapped tightly, and there are no rips or tears in the wrapping. This will protect your dough from freezer burn.Ā
- Bag Up: Place the individually wrapped doughs in a suitably sized freezer-safe bag. Press out as much air as you can before sealing the bag.Ā
- Label and Freeze:Write todayās date and the use-by date on the front of the bag and place your baguette dough in the freezer. Remember, you can freeze baguette dough for around four months.
3 Tips for Freezing Baguette Dough
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing baguette dough to have the best results:
Portion Before Freezing It
Itās much better to split your dough ball into portions before freezing it. This makes your life so much easier when defrosting and baking your baguette dough in the future and ensures you can easily remove the dough you need at any given time.Ā
Freeze After Baking Instead
While itās perfectly fine to freeze baguette dough, you can also freeze your baguettes after baking them. Make sure you allow them sufficient time to cool before wrapping them up and placing them in the freezer.Ā
Freeze WITHOUT Fillings
If you bake your dough before freezing it, ensure you freeze your baguettes without fillings. Adding fillings before placing baguettes in the freezer will cause the bread to go soggy, which is far from ideal as far as the quality of your baguette is concerned!Ā
How Long Can You Freeze Baguette Dough?
You can freeze baguette dough for around four months. While some people will be happy to freeze it for longer than this, weād recommend using it up within this timeframe for the best results.
The longer you leave baguette dough in the freezer, the more likely it is to deteriorate in terms of taste and quality. So, for the best results, use your frozen baguette dough within four months of placing it in the freezer.
How Do You Defrost Baguette Dough?
Defrosting baguette dough is nice and straightforward, but you need to make sure you do it right.
The day before you plan to bake your baguettes, take the dough out of the freezer and place it in the fridge. You can then leave it to thaw overnight.
Itās really important to thaw baguette dough before baking it, as cooking dough from frozen will impact the end result and leave you with a far from perfect baguette.
Can You Refreeze Baguette Dough?
We wouldnāt recommend refreezing baguette dough, as it might affect the consistency of your dough.
Instead, itās much better to separate your dough ball into individual portions, so you can easily remove the amount of dough you need from the freezer at any time.
Does Baguette Dough Freeze Well?
Overall, baguette dough freezes really well. The main thing to remember is to wrap it tightly before freezing, as freezer burn will cause the dough to spoil.
Provided you follow the steps above and take care when freezing baguette dough, you can keep it in the freezer for four months without issue.
Related FAQs
If youāve still got questions about freezing baguette dough or baguettes in general, then these may help:
Yes, dough will rise after being frozen. Yeast is not killed in the freezer but is put to sleep which means, when thawed, it awakens and will rise a little. It won’t be as active as it once was, however.
Yes, you can freeze any yeast dough after the first rise. It will lose some of its rise when frozen but this can be countered by slowly thawing in the fridge overnight.
