The Surprisingly Simple Way I Finally Got My Bread Dough to Rise Perfectly

I’m fortunate to reside in San Francisco, the place glorious pastries and sourdough bread are available. Despite the abundance of baked items, I nonetheless love making cinnamon rolls, yeasted espresso truffles, and numerous kinds of pizza at residence. Here in San Francisco, although, the temperature is sort of at all times between 55 and 72°F (12 to 22°C), which suggests I typically wrestle to proof dough at room temperature. Luckily, I’ve discovered a intelligent workaround that ensures good proofing each single time: inserting a sizzling forged iron skillet within the oven with the dough.

The Importance of Proofing

Yeast is a dwelling ingredient that wants time to work. When leavening brokers resembling baking powder and baking soda are included into doughs and batters—and, within the case of baking soda, used with acid—they create carbon dioxide by a chemical response, serving to truffles, cookies, and different baked items rise throughout baking. Unlike chemical leaveners, yeast works by slowly fermenting and consuming the sugars and enzymes in dough or batter, producing carbon dioxide and ethanol.

The carbon dioxide will get trapped by the gluten community—protein molecules that give breads and pastries their construction and chew—serving to inflate doughs and batters. This course of, in keeping with Serious Eats contributor and baker Max Bernstein’s information to breadmaking, can also be what offers baked items their “attribute flavors and aroma.” Proofing, nonetheless, takes time. Fail to proof your dough lengthy sufficient and it’s possible you’ll find yourself with a dense, gummy loaf or cake.

Beyond time, temperature can also be key to proofing dough effectively. Yeast is extra energetic at heat room temperature (about 74 to 80°F/23 to 26°C), which is why many recipes instruct you to proof in a heat spot. Some recipes could have you ever begin proofing your dough at a heat room temperature earlier than instructing you to maneuver it to the fridge for an extended, slower rise over the course of 8 to 24 hours, which will be useful for growing advanced flavors and textures.

Many residence cooks have devised numerous hacks—together with leaving the oven gentle on, briefly turning on the oven, and inserting a pan of sizzling water inside—to assist create the perfect surroundings for proofing dough. While a few of these strategies will be efficient, none are as constant or dependable as my most well-liked methodology. Leaving the oven gentle on does not work for me, as my bulb is not heat sufficient to make a noticeable distinction. Turning the oven on briefly to heat it up after which shutting it off does work, but it surely requires babysitting the oven to make sure it does not get too sizzling. It additionally entails biking the oven on and off through the proofing to take care of heat, which is unnecessarily fussy.

Placing a pan of sizzling water on the underside shelf of the oven works effectively, but it surely will get messy if it spills. That brings me to my go-to methodology of making a heat surroundings, which additionally occurs to be the simplest: heating a forged iron skillet and inserting it within the oven.

My Foolproof Method

The warmth from the recent skillet passively radiates within the enclosed oven, making a heat surroundings best for proofing dough and serving to it to rise quicker than it will on the counter. Thick forged iron conducts and retains warmth effectively, so there isn’t any want to show the oven on and off or fear about spilling water all around the kitchen ground. If your dough requires an prolonged proof—something over 90 minutes, resembling for brioche—you would possibly must reheat the skillet midway by. But for doughs that solely require 60 to 90 minutes of proofing time, heating the skillet as soon as is often sufficient.

Keep in thoughts that every one ovens are totally different. Some are higher insulated than others, some are bigger or smaller. If you might have an oven thermometer, you possibly can constantly monitor the inner temperature of the oven. If you don’t, simply test the oven on the midway level to see how the dough is progressing and if it is advisable to reheat the skillet.

The Best Skillet to Use

Large, heavy-bottomed forged iron skillets work higher than small, light-weight ones, which do not retain warmth as effectively. I take advantage of my giant 12-inch Lodge pan, however when you’ve got a smaller skillet, you would possibly must reheat it midway by the proofing to take care of heat. Do not use enamel-coated forged iron, because the enamel coating and forged iron have totally different charges of thermal enlargement, and exposing the pan to intense warmth can injury it and even crack the enamel.

How to Easily Create a Warm Proofing Environment

1. Move one of many oven racks to the bottom place.
2. Adjust the second oven rack to the center place.
3. Place the forged iron skillet on prime of the range and warmth it over medium. This takes about three to 5 minutes on my range, however your stovetop may be totally different. I do know the skillet is sizzling and prepared once I can really feel warmth radiating from the pan once I place my hand a few inches over the middle of it. (Once the skillet is sizzling from the range, you must at all times use a heatproof oven mitt to deal with it.)
4. Once the skillet is sizzling, use a kitchen towel or oven mitts to fastidiously transfer it to the underside rack of the oven.
5. Place the dough in a bowl on the center shelf, ensuring it’s lined with a humid towel or plastic wrap, then shut the door and proof till prepared (usually that is when the dough is puffy and practically doubled in dimension, however every recipe is totally different).

With the forged iron skillet trick, I could make a weeknight pizza dough with out worrying that it will take ceaselessly to rise. That approach, I can focus extra on the toppings and fewer on whether or not I’ll get dinner on the desk at an inexpensive hour.