May, I wouldn't shape the dough and then refrigerate.

If it was me I would make the dough and put it in the fridge Wednesday or Thursday night and then take it out of the fridge early enough on Friday for it to come to room temperature. Then I would shape the loaves, let them rise and then bake.

Ann

If I were doing this, I'd bake the bread at home, then reheat it at your destination. When I want to reheat bread, I preheat the oven to 500 F. I then turn the oven off and put the bread in for about 5 - 7 minutes. It will be close to freshly baked. It will be heated through and the crust will be good.

Lori

It takes so long for refrigerated dough to come to room temp and rise, that you really don't save any time doing it that way, I find. I used to teach cooking in the local high school and with only 45 minute periods, we had to do the refrigerator method when we baked dough (we teachers could take the dough out a couple of hours ahead, so it was ready for the students to do the next step in class), and honestly, I don't care for the texture/quality of refrigerator yeast breads. If you're bound and determined to do yeast bread, I'd make it and bake it the day before, then heat it up--it will be less trouble and will be a better product than if you mess with refrigerating the dough.

Or, why not consider a quick bread? Corn muffins, or a tomato bacon cheese loaf? there are lots of savory quick breads that you could make, and with those, you could measure out all the ingredients the night before, keeping the dry and liquid separate, of course. Then, when you come home from work, just turn on the oven, combine the ingredients, give a few stirs and pop it into the pan and into the oven.

Ok, thanks! I will just bake the bread on thurs and reheat. I guess that's the best way.

I've already said I'm bringing the monkey bread and I want to stick to it. When I said that, I thought it was for Saturday night so it would have been no biggie to bake it that day. But that's ok.

I'm actually going to use grated asiago cheese, grated garlic, freshly ground pepper and evoo as the coating instead of the herbs I made it with before. This monkey bread is so easy to make and it comes out so good that I've been wanting to make it with different coatings. Next time I want to use melted butter, sugar and cinnamon.

Thanks for everyone's advice!!! I love this forum!

I don't really think I would like biting into a cheesy garlic-ey piece of hot bread that was coated with even a little black pepper. I think I would rather have soem oregano or basil or rosemary with the asiago and garlic than pepper.....and I love pepper.
Just a thought.
Linda C

I was just thinking of what I've eaten at restaurants when they give you olive oil to dip your bread in. My favorite combination is grated parmesan cheese, garlic and pepper. Not a whole LOT of pepper, just a hint. But I'll think about it. Maybe I will use herbs instead....

I love black pepper so that definitely appeals to me.

Ann

This sounds good, where is the recipe?
Thanks!

Posted by sally2 (My Page) on Tue, Nov 11, 08 at 10:18

I just remembered this recipe I've made before, and it was quite tasty. It lists separate herbs, but I bet you can use an equivalent amount of one of your new blends. I think you could use this method for just about any bread recipe, but this is what was in the cookbook, so that's how I'll post it.

Herbed Monkey Bread
From The Kind Arthur Flour Baker's Companion

10 small servings

1 recipe white bread 101 (recipe to follow)

Herb Coating

3 to 5 tablespoons (1 1/4 to 2 3/8 ounces) Olive Oil*
1 tablespoon fresh stemmed thyme, or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, or 1 tablespoon dried
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 garlic clove, minced

Combine the oil, herbs, and garlic. Set the mixture aside.

Prepare White Bread 101 up through it's first rise. Grease the bottom and sides of a small (8-inch) tube or bundt-style pan, or a deep (2 inches or deeper) 8-inch cake pan or souffle dish. Turn out the risen dough onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it into 32 small pieces, each about the size of a chestnut and weighing approximately 3/4 ounce. Place about a third of them in the bottom of the pan if you're using a small bundt-style pan. If you're using a cake pan, put about two-thirds of the pieces into it. Brush the dough in the pan with the herb coating. Continue to layer with the remaining balls, brushing the top layer with the remaining herb oil. (If you've used the greater amount of olive oil, dip each piece of dough into the oil to coat it completely before layering it into the pan.) Let the bread rise, covered, for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake the bread for 30 to 35 minutes, until it's golden. Remove it from the oven and invert it onto a serving platter; the crispy bottom crust should be on top. Serve warm.

*Use 3 tablespoons of oil if you simply want to drizzle the herb coating over the bough balls once they're in the pan. To thoroughly coat each dough ball before putting them in the pan, use 5 tablespoons of olive oil. This extra oil will give the bread a delicious crisp crust.

Here's the bread recipe. I'll go ahead and enter the complete recipe, even though for the Monkey Bread you'll not use the whole process.

White Bread 101
1 loaf, 16 slices

3 cups (12 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) sugar
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) butter
1/4 cup (1 1/4 ounces) nonfat dry milk
1/4 cup (1 1/2 ounces) potato flour, or 1/3 cup (3/4 ounce) potato flakes
1 1/8 cups (9 ounces) lukewrm water

Combine all the ingredients and mix and knead them together - by hand, mixer, or bread machine - until you've made a soft, smooth dough. Adjust the dough's consistency with additional flour or water as needed; but remember, the more flour you add while you're kneading, the heavier and drier your final loaf will be. Cover and let the dough rise for 1 hour, until it's puffy (though not necessarily doubled in bulk).

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface and shape it into an 8-inch log. Transfer the log to a lightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan, cover the pan (a proof cover works well here), and let the bread rise until the outer edge has risen about 1 inch over the rim of the pan, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Uncover the pan and bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes, tenting it lightly with aluminum foil for the final 10 to 15 minutes if it appears to be browning too quickly. Remove the bread from the oven, take it out of the pan, and place it on a wire rack to cool completely. After 15 minutes, brush it with butter, if desired; this will give it a soft crust.

Sally

OH! wanted to say, Thanks for saying that Ann! I was wondering if I was way off base with my idea!

bumblebeez,
This recipe posted by sally2 is really good and really easy. And very impressive to serve!!