When I started baking from the refrigerator, I did some research on how long can one keep the shaped bread in the refrigerator without compromising the quality of the finished product. A great number of baking books and websites unanimously state that for the best tasting bread you should give your bread 8-12-24 hours of cold fermentation. This is ideal. Many bakers agree you can keep your unbaked bread refrigerated up to 72 hours after shaping.
I followed these guidelines myself and planned to work with the dough twice a week. A few times I baked my bread after 4 days in the refrigerator and the bread turned out well.
Last week I refreshed my sourdough on Saturday, made the dough on Sunday evening, and baked the first loaf of bread (out of two) on Monday evening.
The second loaf of bread stayed in the refrigerator for a week. I baked it on Saturday evening one week later. My experiment with the long fermentation proved to be a success.
The second loaf lost some volume, but other than that the bread looked well and the taste was excellent.
Making weekly baking plans just got easier.
Happy baking!