DoughPlan

Pizza Dough: Fridge or Room Temperature Ferment?

By Josep Mampel Marques, updated

Both work, and the choice is mostly about your calendar and your kitchen. A same-day dough on the counter needs about 0.10% instant dry yeast for 8 hours at 21 °C. A dough fermented 2 days in the fridge needs about 0.09%, but takes 53 hours in total. The counter dough is ready the same day; the fridge dough lets you mix days ahead and is less sensitive to how warm your kitchen is. The DoughPlan planner plans either from the time you want to eat.

The difference in numbers

Instant dry yeast as a percentage of flour from the DoughPlan model. "Room" doughs spend all the time at the kitchen temperature, split 35% bulk and 65% balls. "Fridge" doughs use the planner's schedule: 2 hours at room temperature, the fridge at 4 °C, then 3 hours at room temperature.

PlanTotal time18 °C kitchen21 °C kitchen24 °C kitchen
Room, 8 hours8 h0.179%0.102%0.060%
Room, 12 hours12 h0.102%0.058%0.034%
Room, 24 hours24 h0.039%0.022%0.013%
Fridge, 1 day29 h0.183%0.125%0.084%
Fridge, 2 days53 h0.119%0.089%0.064%
Fridge, 3 days77 h0.086%0.068%0.052%

Two things stand out. First, a fridge dough needs more yeast than a counter dough of the same number of hours would, because yeast works slowly at 4 °C. A day in the fridge needs more yeast than 12 hours on the counter. Second, a counter dough changes much more with kitchen temperature. The 8 hour dough needs three times as much yeast at 18 °C as at 24 °C (0.179% against 0.060%). The 2 day fridge dough needs 1.9 times as much (0.119% against 0.064%).

Where the time goes in a fridge dough

The model counts only part of a fridge dough's fermentation as happening in the fridge. At 21 °C and 4 °C, the fridge share is about 28% for a 1 day plan, 43% for 2 days and 54% for 3 days. The rest is the 5 hours at room temperature. That is why a "cold ferment" still depends on the kitchen. The method page explains this additive rule.

How each fits a week

To eat on Saturday at 20:00, the planner gives these start times for 4 pizzas:

PlanStart mixingDough goes in the fridgeOut of the fridge
Room, 8 hours at 21 °CSaturday 11:25no fridgeno fridge
Fridge, 1 dayFriday 14:25Friday 17:00Saturday 17:00
Fridge, 2 daysThursday 14:25Thursday 17:00Saturday 17:00

The counter dough takes more of the day itself but nothing before it. The fridge dough asks for 35 minutes of hands-on work on a weekday afternoon (20 minutes mixing, 15 minutes shaping, with 2 hours of waiting in between) and frees Saturday. Full step lists are in same day pizza dough and the 48 hour pizza dough recipe.

What published recipes do

So both are standard. We do not claim one tastes better. That depends on taste, flour and the dough you started with, and we have not run a blind test.

Which should you pick?

Frequently asked questions

Can I ferment pizza dough on the counter overnight?

Yes, with very little yeast. At 21 °C, our model gives 0.022% instant dry yeast for 24 hours, or 0.11 g for 500 g of flour, and 0.058% for 12 hours. King Arthur's Neapolitan-style recipe rises at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours. At 24 °C, the amounts fall by about 40%, so check your kitchen temperature first.

Is a fridge dough ready sooner?

No. A fridge dough is ready after the dough warms up again, which is why the planner puts 3 hours at room temperature at the end. A counter dough can be ready in 6 to 8 hours; a fridge dough takes at least 29 hours in the planner.

Does my fridge temperature matter?

Yes. For a 2 day fridge dough, our model gives about 0.107% instant yeast at 2 °C and 0.064% at 7 °C. Put a thermometer in your fridge and enter what it reads. See pizza dough problems if the dough runs ahead of or behind the clock.

Next steps

Sources