Well I'm not too religious, so I wasn't *too* concerned about it all,
but I did pop it in the fridge the night before, and then took it out
mid-day, let it warm up, shaped it, let it rise (it rose beautifully
the second time, by the way), then baked it.

Conclusion: rising it in the refrigerator overnight turned out to be a
great idea and it worked perfectly.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 10:02:26 +0200, Davida Chazan - The Chocolate Lady
> wrote:

>NOTE: My Correct Address is in my signature (just remove the spaces).
>On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 23:57:19 -0700, D. Sutton
> wrote:
>
>>I'm about to make some challah for the upcoming jewish holidays and
>>want it to be fresh for dinner on saturday night, but won't have time
>>all day saturday to make it and let it rise, etc.
>>
>>Would it work if I prepared the dough on friday night and let it rise
>>in the fridge overnight? The recipe calls for rising time of only 90
>>minutes, so would it be okay to sit in the fridge for hours? Would it
>>rise just the same in there? Is there a special way to break up bread
>>recipes when the dough is going to sit overnight?
>
>I take it you were finished making it before the fast came in? Then
>if was in the fridge for the next day until sunset?
>
>>any help is appreciated.
>
>So... did it work?
>
>I would have taken it out of the fridge about 30-45 minutes before the
>fast was supposed to go out. That way you could shape it after the
>fast went out, let it sit for 30 minutes for the second raise while
>getting the rest of the food ready, then bake and you'd have HOT
>Challah for the meal.
>
>(Of course, depends on how religious you are. Some would do it so
>that they could bake it just as the fast goes out.)