Freezing bread dough - at what stage?

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

I like to make bread at the weekend but don't always have enough time and I have wondered about freezing the dough. However I'm not sure at which stage to freeze it. It would need to be after the first rising in order to achieve any time saving, but then I'n not sure whether to freeze it after knocking back or after shaping and the second rising. Has anyone had any success with this?

I would expect you could freeze it just before shaping, you can buy fresh dough to put straight in the oven.

I would try it a few ways and pick the one that saved the most time/worked better.

Thanks, I decided one way to save time at the weekend would be to make the dough on my day off during the week and stick it in the freezer, so I have two shaped loaves in the freezer, I'll get them out tonight and bake them tomorrow see how they turn out.

Have you thought about buying a bread maker? We have a Panasonic one and it is fabulous!!!! We bake all our bread at home now, delicious!

I've had two and Freecycled both of them as it happens. Mainly because of lack of space, but the first one lost all the non stick off the pan, the second one the paddle always got stuck in the bottom of the loaves so I wasn't all that impressed with them. I make the dough in a Kenwood Prospero now, so that part is easy, it's just the timing of all the risings that's the problem. We only want home made bread at weekends, as we don't eat enough during the week to be worthwhile, but it's during the week when I generally have time to do all the making, hence wanting to freeze the dough.

I'd be more inclined to go for a slow rise in the fridge overnight, then finish baking in the morning, than freezing. Would that be an option?