I set a bread dough on Sunday morning. It took a long time to rise, as usual in our house. I was going to bake it in the evening, after dinner, but completely forgot about it. Then at 10 o’clock at night I was suddenly reminded of it – way too late to shape loaves and bake them.

I put it in the fridge (having reshuffled half the fridge to make room for the large dough bowl) and crossed my fingers that it would keep for a day. Either it works or it doesn’t – worth a try at least. Came home from the office on Monday evening, took it out, and picked up from where I’d left off.

The dough didn’t suffer at all from a twenty-hour pause. The bread came out great – possibly even better than usual.