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Original poster

Where do you prove bread dough?

31 replies

Dumbledoresgirl · 01/05/2009 17:03

If you don't have an airing cupboard.

I want to do more than make loaves of bread in my breadmaker. I was hoping to start with some bread rolls this weekend. But all the recipes for anything other than loaves require you to prove the dough outside the machine, at 40 C / 90 F.

I don't have an airing cupboard and my oven temp starts at 70 C, so where can I put the dough to prove?

OP posts:
slng · 01/05/2009 17:13

I leave mine on the kitchen table and it has always worked, even in winter ...

Original poster
Dumbledoresgirl · 01/05/2009 17:23

Would you say your kitchen is warm though? Ours isn't especially - probabaly nearer 20 C than 40 C.

Ds2 made some lovely bread rolls at school the other day and I asked him where they were put to prove and he said nowhere special, just left on the table, but I should imagine a school kitchen with all those ovens on would be quite hot.

OP posts:
Kathyis6incheshigh · 01/05/2009 17:27

It just takes longer if you do it somewhere cooler. In fact you can do it in the FRIDGE and it will still work, just take a day or two.
Just find wherever is warmest. If you want to do it quickly you could turn the oven on and then turn it off again so it is still warm but not hot enough to kill the yeast. Or near the oven once it is heating up.
There is a technique where you can do it really fast in the microwave but I've never tried as it sounds a bit risky.

Original poster
Dumbledoresgirl · 01/05/2009 17:28

Would turning the oven on for 10 mins and then turning it off and putting the dough on top of the oven (or in the top oven if the bottom oven had been turned on) work or would that be too hot?

OP posts:
hobbgoblin · 01/05/2009 17:30

Heat kills the yeast so the cooler the better, but certainly slower!

Kathyis6incheshigh · 01/05/2009 17:32

Not knowing your oven I can't say for sure, but I would have thought it would be ok!

oxocube · 01/05/2009 17:34

in the kitchen, on the bench. My kitchen is about 18 - 20 deg C. Good for bread to rise slowly otherwise it can taste 'yeasty' when cooked.

TrillianAstra · 01/05/2009 17:35

Optimal growing temp for yeast is 30 C according to all the poeple who worked on yest at my old lab - and yes it was Saccharomyces cerevisiae AKA baker's yeast (and also brewer's yeast)

Kathyis6incheshigh · 01/05/2009 17:36

Yes you do get a better flavour if you do it more slowly.

slng · 01/05/2009 17:54

In our house the kitchen is the warmest place but probably nearer 20C than 40C. In fact 40C sounds a bit on the warm side. I have even put the dough in the fridge to slow it down but it still rises quite quickly.

goingtohaveagoodnightssleep · 01/05/2009 17:58

I leave mine on top of the fridge and it always works well.

goingtohaveagoodnightssleep · 01/05/2009 17:58

I leave mine on top of the fridge and it always works well.

abroadandmisunderstood · 01/05/2009 18:05

I prove my bowl of dough on the kitchen floor (underfloor heating)

Original poster
Dumbledoresgirl · 01/05/2009 19:06

Ahh thanks, this is all very interesting and encouraging.

So now you have allowed me to believe I can get the dough to rise, does anyone have any tips for how to work out when your blob of dough has doubled in size?!

OP posts:
Kathyis6incheshigh · 01/05/2009 19:34

You don't have to be very precise, it's just a rough guide
I don't worry about calculating doubling - I reckon it's ready when it's Definitely Bigger Than It Was Before.

boogeek · 01/05/2009 19:36

I have bought a smashing new oven that has a dough=proving setting so I use that [smug]
But before I had it, just on the side like everybody else, and left it until it was big enough regardless of how long it took.

Podrick · 01/05/2009 19:38

I prove pizza dough next to a radiator

Original poster
Dumbledoresgirl · 01/05/2009 19:56

Hmmm .

OP posts:
slng · 01/05/2009 20:03

I do the "Just Follow the Recipe" approach (apart from the leave-at-warm-place bit, and the water temperature bit due to not having thermometer). I have very good recipes and the dough is always Definitely Bigger Than It Was Before when it says it should be ...

Kathyis6incheshigh · 01/05/2009 20:24

TBH it will be good whatever you do. Even if you over- or under-prove it. Doing the kneading in a bread machine and then baking in the oven is a v easy way to get good bread.

boogeek · 01/05/2009 20:28

OK let me be more specific. I have a bowl about so big. When it has been kneaded (kned?) the dough sits in a little ball at the bottom, about this big
(to scale)
Then when it is ready it has got about this big
and fills more of the bowl than it did before.
Got it?

BarcodeZebra · 01/05/2009 20:30

I make two loaves every other day by mixing the dough in the morning (pretty roughly I have to say - forget kneeding for 10 mins) and leaving it in a bowl on top of the fridge until the evening.

Then I give it a quick kneed chuck it into two loaf tins and horse it into the oven once its warmed up (10 mins tops).

Proving? My bum!

Original poster
Dumbledoresgirl · 01/05/2009 21:10

ooh I feel quite excited at the prospect. I must admit I had a moment's doubt when, Kathy, you said "It will be good whatever you do" as I have handmade bread rolls before that would have made good 10 pin bowling balls, such was their heaviness, but then you went on to mention that the kneeding would be done in a breadmaking machine and I had hope again. I am sure that my kneeding leaves much to be desired.

OP posts:
slng · 01/05/2009 21:40

I do this and variations, and that requires next to no kneading.

Though I have started making sourdough bread. That's another kettle of fish ...

Kathyis6incheshigh · 02/05/2009 07:48

I am not quite sure about Boogeek's scale drawing - I always thought the doubling was by volume rather than length. I asked dh how much wider a sphere would be if it doubled in volume, and he said the diameter would be about 1 and a quarter times the original. However the bread is not a sphere, more of a blob, so probably nearer one and a half times as wide would be doubled volume.
Am probably over-complicating here, so what I really mean is: don't worry if it takes ages and isn't quite twice as wide, as long as it is Definitely Bigger and feels lighter when you poke it.