Urgent - will my bread rise in a cool house?

[LapinDeBois]

I have just embarked on my first ever loaf. I'm about to get to the rising bit, and I don't have a warm place. My house temperature is 19 degrees, and I don't have an airing cupboard. Is this warm enough for my bread to rise?

It might be a wee bit cool. It's a bit wasteful, but you could put your oven on just to warm up a bit (1-2 mins, just to take the edge off), then turn it off, and leave your loaf in there.

Whatever you do, make sure you cover it well (and grease the inside of the cling film if you are using) :)

Yes, it will be fine. It might take a bit longer but that's ok. Slow risen bread is often tastier. You can even put it in the fridge overnight for a very slow rise. (Apparently. I've never tried it though).

Enjoy eating it later, homemade bread is delicious!

Lorraine Pascal puts her oven on low, props the door open and sets the bowl near it. That might help!

God I love Mumsnet. Replies to urgent baking queries in under 2 mins. Some questions: if I put it in the oven, what's the ideal temp (I could stick my room thermostat in there )? If I go for slow rising in my cool house, how much longer is it likely to take than the 1.5 hours suggested? Thank you!

Let it rise until roughly doubled in size. When I make bread its usually risen to near the top of a normal mixing bowl when its ready to be knocked back.

Oven temp I havent a clue. What size is it and is it just normal bread?

It's 450g of flour, normal loaf but a mix of half wheat and half spelt. Recipe from the Felicity Cloake 'Perfect' book.

To rise I think oven at even lowest temp would be too hot. Sorry I thought you meant baking temp :o

I wouldn't bother with the oven, I would just leave it to rise slowly at room temp.

Slow risen bread has a better flavour.

I wouldn't put it in the oven. I put mine on top of the fridge or on the work surface and it always rises eventually!

Thanks again for the advice. I went for the oven trick in the end, as I wanted to eat the bread for dinner so couldn't wait for a slow rise on this occasion(fillybuster wasn't suggesting I leave the oven on, BTW, just nudge it up a few degrees and then turn it off, which I did). Anyway, the bread was absolutely gorgeous. I think I'm a convert. Particularly now I've discovered that MN has an entire baking topic..................

I know this is late, but you can actually leave it in the fridge for 24hrs and it'll rise.

MN is utterly fab for last minute baking emergencies :) :) :)

So glad that worked Lapin :) Congrats on your loaf....enjoy the baking section - see you there!

Like someone else said dough will rise in the fridge-it takes longer, but it will work.

Well, it's cool compared to an airing cupboard or 'warm kitchen' where I thought you were meant to put your dough to rise. But thanks to MN I now know better. Tomorrow I'm going to try an overnight fridge rise - I like the idea of baking fresh bread for breakfast .

18-24 degrees is perfect to prove bread.

Too warm is bad, but it will prove in the fridge if you want it to.

i love the term 'slow rise'. Not sure why

I have a little trick with dough raising, always put in inside the oven and turn it on 50' and let the oven open a little. I had the home bread bakery before and it was warming up the dough while raising as well. definitely helps and doesnt do any damage.