I've read on some other sites where they recommend aging the pizza dough, making it and then letting it sit in the fridge for 2-3 days.

What is the advantage of this process? The cold keeps the yeast from causing the bread to rise while in there, right?

Does the extra time help more flavors develop?

I find that it not only helps flavor, but also texture. Hard to describe it other than dough after a single day is "plain" but after 3-5 days it has character. Make a multi-ball batch and cook one the next day, then one after 3 days, then another after 5 and see for yourself. Big difference between 1-3 days. Smaller difference between 3-5. At least for the recipe I normally use...

The flavor changes come from a couple of things that result in a more complex mix of compounds. The most boring dough comes from doing a fast rise where you add sugar. The sugar gets converted by the yeast to CO2, acetic acid, and ethanol.

At the lower temperature where things slow down, you're going to get the yeast shifting to other nutrients in the flour and outputting different waste products. You also get more of a contribution from bacteria in the flour, which are what is doing the work in a sourdough.

I'm guessing that microbes chewing up some of the gluten might contribute to what javajaws sees, but that could also be due to slow rearranging of the gluten strands. There are also enzymes in the dough. Some people incubate flour and water alone before adding yeast and salt.

http://www.abreadaday.com/the-autolyse-method/

I let my cookie dough sit in the fridge for 24 hours and have had good results.

As a Food Science friend of mine once said....the opposite of Fresh is not Frozen...the opposite of Fresh is Decomposing.

ToddyHill said:

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As a Food Science friend of mine once said....the opposite of Fresh is not Frozen...the opposite of Fresh is Decomposing.

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I love explains to people what aging beef is actually doing.

Yummy bee barf!

SACR said:

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I've read on some other sites where they recommend aging the pizza dough, making it and then letting it sit in the fridge for 2-3 days.

What is the advantage of this process? The cold keeps the yeast from causing the bread to rise while in there, right?

Does the extra time help more flavors develop?

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Makes the dough less "elastic", easier to shape and keep in shape.

I am going to try this.

After making pepperoni rolls, I still have half a batch of dough left over.

I'm going to keep it in the fridge and see how it tastes after either 24 or 48 hours.

I may do a pizza tomorrow.

Did a 48 hour cold ferment, made a pepperoni pizza, came out great.